COENA quasi ΚΟΙÎΗ The New-INCLOSVRES broken down AND THE LORDS SUPPER Laid forth in common for all Church-members having a Dogmatical Faith and not being Scandalous In a Diatribe and Defence thereof AGAINST The Apology of some Ministers and Godly People as their owne Mouth praiseth them asserting the lawfulness of their administring the LORDS SUPPER in a select Company Lately set forth by their Prolocutor Mr. HUMPHREY SAUNDERS Written by WILLIAM MORICE of Werrington in DEVON Esq LONDON Printed by W. Godbid for Richard Thrale and are to be sold at the Cross-Keyes at Paul's gate entring into Cheap-side M. DC LVII Augustin in Psal 48. Concio 1. Tom. 8. Pag. 93. EXigitur a manducante quod manducat non prohibeatur à dispensatore sed moveatur timere exactorem Chrysostom in 1. ad Cor. 11. Hom. 27. Tom. 4. Pag. 110. Quoniam Dominica coena hoc est Domini debet esse communis quaeenim Domini sunt non sunt hujus servi aut alterius sed omnibus communia quod enim Dominicum est idem commune nam si Domini tui est quemadmodum est non debes tanquam propria tibi assumere sed tanquam res Domini communiter omnibus proponere siquidem hoc est Dominicum nunc autem non sinis esse Dominicum cum non sinis esse commune sed tibi comedis Bullinger adversus Anabaptist l. 6. c. 9. p. 229. 232. Probationem Ministri aut Ecclesiae judicio non relinquimus ut tum demum aliquis ad coenam Domini accedat cum Ministri vel Ecclesia satis dignum fidelem sanctum judicaverit Probet homo seipsum non debet ab alio probari Musculus in 1 Cor. 11.28 Pag. 438 439. Apparet necessarium utile esse eorum studium qui neminem ad coenam Domini admittant quem ipsi antea non probaverunt si modus discretio adhibeatur nec velut universali lege indiscriminatim omnes etiam qui inculpate se gerunt in Ecclesia ad hujusmodi examen constringantur verum juxta timendum est ne institutum hoc quà m nunc magni aestimatur tam olim in priscam servitutem Ecclesiam Christi reducat noxium reddatur Sane Apostolica institutio nihil hujus requirit sed hortatur unumquemque ut seipsum probet sed quid si Minister Ecclesiae hac Apostoli sententia nolit esse contentus nec admittat nisiquos ipse explorat item quid si fidelis ad panis tantum non poculi Dominici communicationem admittatur sicut in Papatu fieri videmus Respondeo ubi nec Domini ea institutio nec Apostolica Doctrina servatur ibi non est ut communicet fidelis sinat Magistratus illos regnare in Ecclesia donec visum fuerit Domino modum imponere illorum Dominio Chamier Panstrat Tom. 4. l. 7. c. 19. S. 17. Pag. 196. Non sunt digne praeparati Scelus hominis cur indignos Sacramento dicis quos indignos negas pace Ecclesiae Itane tibi videatur qui censeantur in corpore Christi ut indignos pronuncies qui vescantur Christo at Chrysostomus negabat dignos esse qui vel precibus interessent quodnam quaeso ingenium tuum est Chrysostomi certe Catholicum vide ne tuum non Christianum Casaubon exercit ad annal Baron exercit 16. S. 31. Pag. 366. Coena Domini privatae epulae non sunt natura sua sed publica fidelium omnium invitatio The Summe of the Dissertation DIATRIBE SECT I. OF Antiquity and Innovation the Character of their Discipline the state of the question p. 29. DEFENCE SECT I. What Authority the Diatribe ascribed to the Fathers and ancient Church Why the Apologists derogate from them p. 32. SECT II. Of Antiquity Custome sad consequences of Independency the novelty thereof the Fathers not without errors yet not to be sleighted What may be called the Primitive Church Protestants alwayes honoured their Fathers and never declined their Testimony p. 33. SECT III. How the Apologists have suited their Discipline to comply with several-Parties and Interests the odious Blots of their Pen. p. 42. SECT IV. Whether the Diatribe were guilty of Petitio Principii 44. SECT V. Whether their Discipline advance Godlinesse The Sacraments are Seales of the Conditionall Covenant which Doctrine hath no affinity with semi-Pelagianisme Whether the exhibiting the Sacrament make men Saints Whether the giving thereof without discrimination upon tryal blind men in their sins or be the setting of the Seal to Blanks Whether the Sacraments are privileges of the Godly 1 Cor. 10. argumentative for a free Communion 46. SECT VI. Independent Bookes and Arguments Of Rhetorique what Builders the Apologists are 62. SECT VII The Apologists causlesly irritated by an Allegory 67. SECT VIII In whom the School vesteth the Power of Church-Censures Whether the Apologists may de jure or do de facto censure alone How they have restored the Sacrament 68. SECT IX The state of the Question the model of their Church Whether their way smack of Donatus his schisme Ecclesiastical Communion consists principally in Communion of Sacraments Of Examination precedent to the partaking of the Eucharist Whether and how necessary What knowledge may be competent What profession of Faith the antient Church required before admission to Sacraments Of Excommunication Suspension Presbytery the Apologists no friends thereunto 71. DIATRIBE SECT II. The Lord Jesus examined not his Disciples antecedently to his Supper He admitted Judas to the participation as the Fathers consentiently assert and the Scripture evinceth Luke 22.21 Joh. 13.2.26 27 30. discussed 96. DEFENCE SECT X. How we know Christ examined not the Apostles The force of Arguments from the Authority negative of Scripture Of the washing of the Apostles feet VVhether any did partake the last Supper save the 12. Apostles The Apologists conceit of the 70. Disciples Of Confession of Faith how and when necessary Examination is a virtual and interpretative diffamation VVhether it be a small thing they require VVhether Examination if it be necessary ought to be made but once 111. SECT XI Judas did communicate at the Lords Supper What is thereby inferred The Attestation of the Fathers in that matter the consent of later Divines The weight of the testimonies on either side the Apologists confess there was no visible cause to exclude him VVhether Christ in admitting him acted onely as a man His not condemning the adulterous woman 122. DIATRIBE SECT III. The sufficiency of Scripture whereupon Negative Arguments are grounded the Argument deduced from 1 Cor. 11.28 it is difficult and unsafe to judge of other mens estate Of temerarious judgment Of judging men to be wicked or irregenerate With what difficulty and what a Pedegree of consequences their proofs are derived from Scripture Generall Rules for satisfaction of doubting Consciences perswade the contrary to their way Of Christs admitting onely Disciples Heb. 13.17 Mat. 18.16 Rev. 2.2 1 Pet. 3.15 1 Cor. 5.11 explained and vindicated 134. DEFENCE SECT 12. 1
assume as large and free power to exclude some such even where no consistorial juridical formal proceeding can be had as they now take to put by and interpretatively to excommunicate all which they do while they at least many of them administer it to none but intermit the use thereof altogether or exhibit it to very few or none in comparison but to such onely as they have gathered into a new Church and therefore as one being asked where he found his interpretation concerning Constantines donation as another his gloss upon the Salike Law answered If any looked on the back-side of that Donation and so of that Law there it was to be found so might it be more aptly said that from whence they derived the power and liberty to excommunicate all by non-administration or so many by non-admission they might fetch a right to exclude persons scandalous yea and apparently ignorant But our Rhodus and Saltus our present question is whether it be not onely profitable but necessary antecedently to the Communion to make examination notional or real of the knowledge or the lives not onely of such who upon morally probable grounds may well be suspected to be incompetent for ignorance or crime but of all indifferently so as for want of will in any to submit to this probation they may justly be debarred the Sacrament and for want of power or means in the Minister to exercise this Discipline he may lawfully intermit the administration or administer it onely to such as will submit themselves thereunto gathered and convened and not by their proper Pastour out of distant places and several Congregations DEFENCE SECT I. What authority the Diatribe ascribed to the Fathers and ancient Church Why the Apologists derogate from them THe Paper so I shall call it after that name which the Apologists always give it at the Circumcision thereof in the first Section seemed to rise to the hoary head of Antiquity and cast a suspitious eye upon Novelty recognizing that habet ut in aetatibus authoritatem Senectus sic in exemplis antiquitas and accounting with the Oracle that to be the best complexion which was concolor mortuis yet this was delivered onely in thesi and general not in hypothesi or particular application to my subject and by way of preface not of argumentation as they suggest calling this the first-born argument which yet had no double portion of substance nor was the beginning of strength or excellency of dignity Fit enim naturae quodam instinctu judicio recto sanè si illo recte utamur ut in religionis negotio nova omnia sint suspecta ferè exosa Casaub exercit 16. S. 43. p. 390. There was notwithstanding not the least intimation made as if any thing that bears the stamp of Antiquity were therefore to be received but onely not hastily to be laid aside nor that any thing was to be rejected because new coined but not to be so easily entertained neither that whatsoever was ancient was infallibly true but the more credible nor that which was new was undoubtedly false but more suspicious The Apologists cannot say and whosoever shall make inspection into the Paper will not see that I attribute too much to Antiquity and if they would have ascribed any thing they needed to have said nothing But it seems they have the same quarrel to Antiquity which the Affricans have of the Sun Urit fulgore suo and as Herod being originally a stranger and Alien sought to suppresse the Genealogies of the Jewish Nation and especially of the Royal Linage so the Apologists seek to disparage and detract from the exemplary practice of the ancient Church and judgment of the Fathers whereunto in opinion and way they are strangers De Carthagine potius nulla quà m pauca I am not susceptible to assert the honour and reverend esteem of the illustrious Fathers as Iuther calls them neither shall I need to undertake it for though mutus fit oportet qui non laudabat Herculem yet it was no unapt check of Antalcidas Quis unquam sanus eum vituperavit But since the Apologists instead of answering the testimonies have thought to discredit the Witnesses and have somewhat enlarged themselves both in this and the 13. Section to lessen their authority It may seem proditorious to desert their Defence and to shew lesse zeal to support them than they have done to deprave their credit especially seeing as Isocrates was said to have made many Orations in sending forth many Orators and he that saves a Physician preserves many lives and many remedies So I shall in vindicating this Topick fortifie the Arguments drawn from it and if it seem out of my way yet it is but in fresh suit of the Apologists whom I am bound to follow SECT II. Of Antiquity Custome sad consequences of Independency the novelty thereof the Fathers not without errours yet not to be sleighted What may be called the Primitive Church Protestants always honoured the Fathers and never declined their Testimony THey embrace that saying That which is first is true because true antiquity is a friend to truth and every good way is old but they restrain and limit this to such age and antiquity as things may claim onely for being revealed in Scripture But this is not the onely antiquity which we are now debating of this is Antiquity proved Ex priori but it is Ecclesiastical antiquity as I may call it the consent and custome of the antient Church antiquity proved Ex posteriori which we are now considering of what authority it carries what reverence and esteem it merits and what force and influence it hath We concur to adore Divine Scripture antiquity as the best Veritas in omnibus imaginem anteceda postremò similitudo succedit I ertul. Aug. contra Crescon l. 2. c. 29. Idem de peccat merit remis 1.1 c. 22. In mâ—de natura 〈◊〉 â— 61. 〈…〉 Mihi pro his omnibus imo supra hos omnes Apostolus Paulus to assent to it as the truest as that which nec falli potest nec fallere and to captivate our understanding thereunto Sine ulla recusatione cum credendi necessitate But because this is the best and truest and most infallible antiquity therefore to infer that no other antiquity needs to be considered of or is worthy of reverence or can lend any strength of argument is as if I should conclude that because an Apodictick Syllogism whose principles are propositions verae primae immediatae priores notiores causae conclusionis is onely Scientifical that therefore all Dialectick Syllogisms concluding ex probabilibus are useless and despicable or that St. Paul argued both weakly and superfluously that the woman ought to have power on her head because of the Angels when it had been enough and more efficacious to have said because of God or because Christ is the onely Mediatour between God and Man by his merit and efficacy and
ideo in hac ipsa causa graviter monebat videndum esse ne à Sathana occupemur cujus machmationes nemo Christianus ignorat It hath been the ill hap of all the Arguments hitherto alleaged to dash upon that rock ab authoritate Scripturae negativè It hath been their ill hap to be guilty of a palpable and gross mistake for the Argument collected from the admission of Judas was not such nay this very Argument in hand is not such for though we say we finde a precept Let a man examine himself none that he should passe the examination of another yet we do not argue that because the Apostle hath onely commanded the one therefore the other falls not under precept but we thus reason the Apostle requires a man to examine himself and permits him having done so to receive the Sacrament which is the natural analysis and genuine paraphrase of the Text and if any other examination were to intervene then having examined himself Answer to chall Josuit p. 8. Senensis biblioth l. 6. p. 527. For denying the necessity of Confession before receiving of the Sacrament Cajetan his Commentary on 3. q. 80 art 4. is left out of the Roman Edition Sylvius in 3. q. 80. art 4 p. 311. yet So nevertheless he could not be permitted to eat and drink and thereupon not onely the glory of this Nation and our Age Bishop Usher doth from hence extract this Porisma That in the Apostles dayes when a man had examined himself he was admitted to the Lords Table but the great Cardinal Cajetan though cross to the interest of his Church and his fellows are angry for it especially his constant evil genius Catharinus was sensible of the force of this consectary and concludes Dicendo Sic c. by saying and so he signifieth that to a worthy receiving of the Eucharist it is sufficient that a man have examined himself and useth this as a medium to conclude against necessity of confession and is therein applauded by one of his party viz. Petrus Soto Secondly had they been all such Negative Arguments I think they had not dashed upon a rock but been built upon it being founded upon the perfection of Scripture as I have formerly asserted Thirdly in the controverting of this question I am for the negative and Ponenti non infâ—cianti incumbit onus probandi per rerum naturam factum negantis probatio nulla sit saith the Law I had complyed with my part if I had shewed their model of Discipline had no foundation in Scripture to shew there was no necessity thereof that was enough for the Scripture denieth what it noteth not saith Hilary and we beleeve it not because we reade it not addes Hierom Fourthly would I use such wanton and licentious Arguments as the Apologists doe setting the Scripture upon a rack and violently forcing it to speak what is not in it not giving but making the sense of Scripture and so ex Evangelio Christi facere Evangelium hominis as Hierom and Scripturarum verbis pro esca uti as Athanasius we could not want superfluity of Arguments from Scripture authority affirmativè perhaps we might bring forth some of theirs as apt for our purpose as applicable to theirs if not more and might make such Idoll Mercuries of most of the Trees in the Paradise of God but God forbid we should so take his Word in vain and abuse both Scripture and our Readers as it is sadly evident to me the Apologists have done which we shall hereafter manifest and whereof if they shall not take shame we shall be ashamed in stead of Cato That nothing can be necessary about the practice of the Sacrament which is not there express'd they see no reason to yeeld but they should have spoken more rationally if they had shewed reason why they should deny but though they fall short of that yet they go too farre another way when they talk of no other thing necessary which they should limit to no other probation They are sure there is elsewhere which is not there that is certain but they should have said of this concernment and all is necessary that is revealed redundancy being a blemish to the word as well as deficiency although I am not willing to fall into Parerga's and to contract Pyrrhus his fault to be diverted by every petty occasion from the main and shall not therefore insist on rectifying this sorry expression yet I must touch upon it All that is revealed in Scripture is not necessary to be known or explicitly beleeved as that Paul left a cloak at Troas yet all that is known and sufficiently declared and particularly offered to consideration is necessary to be beleeved for the necessity of beleeving results not from the matter great or small but the formal reason or object and objectum formale quod est Deus in essendo sub quo Deus revelans say the Schools and this is the same toward all the material objects so as the smallest matters revealed and sufficiently propounded are to be beleeved necessitate praecepti although not medii and though not revealed because necessary yet are necessary because revealed and particularly declared consequently and accidentally necessary as secondary objects of Faith though not of themselves pertinent to the object of Faith Aquin. 22. q. 2. art 3. for Nihil per se pertinet ad objectum fidei nisi per quod homo beatitudinem consequitur but without this particular declaring and propounding all that is revealed is not necessary to be beleeved but in preparation of mind and by Faith implicite tanquam particulare in universali by a general virtual negative Faith not to gainsay it and therefore sure it was not so clearly and accurately delivered that all that is revealed is necessary Besides though the Scripture be more than sufficient as Lirinensis not prescribing more things than are necessary to be beleeved or practised Antonius Perez but in frequent repeatings and deliveries of those things more than had been simply necessary yet I will not say as a Papist doth which is the more strange that the Scripture is superfluous and redundant much lesse that the knowledge of most things in the same are unnecessary quia instractionis varii sunt gradus ut alia sit plena alia uberior amplior disertiùs quaedam explicata as Chamier observes Tom. 1. l. 8. c. 2. S. 3. p. 104. But if they mean onely that some other tryal is elsewhere prescribed besides self-examination though not here mentioned and therefore necessary because by Divine Revelation commanded as they do not bring it forth nor point us where we may finde it so I know they cannot finde it for Scripture being most perfect truth cannot contradict it self and if some other probation were injoyned him that had examined himself he could not so eat which would check with St. Paul's direction and therefore if they have found such a command I doubt they
the Church-Governors and yet without the Churches fault If they then gather a Church apart they shal be guilty of Schism He speaks here of a secession where a man is passive and cast out not where he goes off when there is Anathematismus excommunicatio injusta iniqua certè qui excoetu aliquo ejecti secedunt se subducunt secesserunt quidem illi attamen non fecerunt schisma as he speaks in the former page but a negative secession wherein a man is active he saith is Schisme being not onely a Decession but a Discission if the cause be either temerarious or unjust and it is temerarious if it be upon a light occasion and the occasion is light unlesse there happen first an intolerable persecution for if it be tolerable the secession is unjust Or secondly Communion is not to be broken but for Fundamentals Mead. p. 622. tom 3. that congregation be infected with heresie for if it be a tolerable error if the rite though superstitious be sufferable there ought to be no separation Or thirdly be addicted to idolatry Now then seeing they confess they make a negative separation as Camero defines it if they can prove and convict their Congregations to be guilty of such persecution heresie or idolatry they may acquit themselves but if they cannot as they doe not attempt or pretend to accuse them thereof they are then culpable of schisme in the judgement of Camero to whom they referre and their separation is not onely temerarious but also unjust separatio injusta veluti extrema schismatis linea Camero ibid. à pag. 322. ad 327. saith he having not so much as a light occasion by any tolerable persecution or error or separation and the scandals being few or none which were they more or greater might perchance make the separation more just but could not excuse it from being temerarious Besides also their separation is rather positive then negative having gathered and constituted a new Church whereof there can be no just cause saith Camero but malum insanabile lethale contagiosum reigning in that Congregation which they desert or res gravis momentosa quae si negligatur tanta est ut de salute gloria Dei actum sit néque enim quicquid verum est id ipsum continuò necessarium est ut qui salubres cibi sunt non sunt continuò necessarii And it is also a separatiâ—n from their Churches though in them not of notorious evill members from the body of the Church but of a Church in and yet from a remaining Church which separation in a Church from those who remain Church-members and of the Church is a principle onely of independent Divinity and hath no dependance upon Scripture Reason or Camero's or any good authority And theirs is likewise a separation not onely by secession in place but from persons who were never duly cast out by any judiciall processe for notorious crimes and therefore is not heterogeniarum partium discessio sed homogeniarum and therefore a Schisme as Camero sentenceth and they are besides very few that separate so as though the cause had some weight L. 3. contra Crescon c. 36. Idem contra Parmen l. 3. c. 21. tom 7. p 11. yet si pauci sunt videtur nihil esse moliendum sed expectandum patienter tempus Domini saith he And whereas they say they separate not from their Churches but from some corruptions First they might separate from their corruptions by keeping themselves pure Non enim qui se castam servat communicat peccatis alienis saith Augustine and elsewhere Mixtus reis obnoxiis nisi per conscientiae maculatam consensionem nullus recte dici potest They may and must separate from the corruptions but they do which they ought not farther separate from the Assemblies with whom they will have no communion in the Sacraments which are Gods Ordinances and not corruptions And corruption of manners also is no just cause of separation for saith Camero wheresoever purity of doctrine flourisheth God in that assembly must needs have a Church though overwhelmed with multitude of scandals and therfore they that separate from such a Congregation doubtlesse depart from thence where God gathereth a Church and therefore saith Augustine Vbi mihi licet in melius commutari Contra Crescon l. 3. c. 36. Eiren. part 1. p. 706. tom 1. non mihi opus est indeseparari And Junius resolveth Non posso quenquam Christianum bona fide renunciare communioni alterius quem Christus aut adjunxit sibi aut se adjuncturum spem facit nam qui fratrem suum servum Dei membrum Christi protervè abdicat is eo ipso facto Christum authorem communionis salutaris nestrae abdicat And with these or like arguments have their Pulpits sounded a retreat to those of their Town which have separated from them to associate with such as have gone farther in their separation as if their sight were in this respect also extra mittendo that they can see the faults of others not their own nor discern how the same weapons wherewith they fight against others may be turned back upon themselves And if they shall say that the very communion in Sacraments with such congregations is a corruption besides that this is petitio principii a begging of the question it is Donatisme without question And whereas Augustine after the precedent words Non enim qui se castum ser vat communicat peccatis alienis adds quamvis non eorum peccata sed illa quibus ad judicium sibi sumunt Dei sacrament acommunicet cum iis à quibus se castum servando fecit alienum might not Cresconius with as much truth and reason as they doe have replied That the very communicating with such was the contracting of their corruption and sin Our Saviour say they lived in unity with the Jewish Church in necessary ordinances yet separated in regard of cerruptions Let them then be followers of Christ and we shall no farther pursue them for the sacrament is a necessary ordinance and not a corruption and there may be a non-conformity in a corruption unto them with whom there may yet be a communion in worship The Lord Jesus lived and died in communion with that corrupt Church saith Mr. Ball and was so indulgent and graciously applicable to sinners that the Pharisees called him a companion of sinners Ipse Dominus Jesus Aug. contra Epist Parmen l. 1. c. 17 Dub. Evang. part 3. Dub. 41. p. 153. nullâ cogitatione malignitatis in Judaeorum gente pollutus est neque cùm illa prima sacramenta secundum perfectam humilitatis viam factus sub lege susâ—epit néque cùm postea discipulis electis cum suo traditoâ—e usque ad extremum osculum vixit And it hath been elswhere mentioned that one reason why Christ would be baptized among the common sort is rendred by Spanheïm to be this Sic etiam
upon whose intercession alone we can rely with faith therefore 't is vain and fruitless to seek or regard the help and assistance of the prayers of the godly To the antient Church I think most authority to be ascribed and greatest reverence to be attributed since streams run purest neer the Fountain and if that which is first be truest what is next to the first is next to truth and â—herefore SaÌ„nctorum Patrum constitutiones qui proximiores fuerant Christo â—â—â—â—scames said Nazianzen and those Orders be most pure that come most neer to the example of the Primitive Church said the holy Martyr Sanders Fox Act. â—â—on p. â—494 yet the at restation of that Church I grant is but an humane testimony nor perfectly â—â—vine but in part as it faithfully testifieth what the Apostles did and said Divine in regard of the matter and thing testified Human in regard of the quality of the Witnesses and manner of testification and therefore formally as such being but an humane testimony can beget but an acquisite faith for no conclusion can be of higher nature than the premises as no water can be made to rise higher than the Spring Picus Mirandula Canus and I grant that Fidei acquisitae quae fulcitur homine proponente non Deo revelante subesse potest falsum and therefore Nunquam hominem quemvis per fidem acquisitam ità existimamus esse veracem quin formidemus cum vel falli posse vel fallere Yet notwithstanding fides acquisitaâ—se habet ad fidem gratuitam sicut praeambula dispositio ad formam disponit animam ad receptionem luminis Alexander Hales all as cited by Dr. F. White 's answer to Fish p. 14. 22. quo assentitur primae veritati propter se dicitur ipsam introducere sicut seta filum and though divine revelation in Scripture be therefore the sole principle immediate motive and formal reason and object of beleeving and last resolution of Faith yet the authority and external testimony of the Church may produce the same as an adjuvant instrumental administring moral cause and subordinate help Prae omnibus si aperta fuerit Scriptura eam ipsam amplector saith St. Augustine and therefore he that will not beleeve Moses and the Prophets it will be in vain to raise any of the dead to perswade him when the Scripture shines out in full brightness omnes Perstringit stellas exortus ut aethereus Sol But when that Sun shines not so clearly as to convince and satisfie contenders who have bad eyes the Fathers as Stars that receive their light from that Sun may reflect some illumination upon us as the Stars are to be seen by day in dark pits and obscure places and though I consent to Augustine Epist. 19. ad Hieron that let the Learning and Holiness of other Writers be never so eminent I will not think it true because they have thought so but because they are able to perswade me either by other Canonical Writers or probable Reason yet I add that I am more confirmed in my perswasion that I rightly hit the sense of Canonical Writers and apprehend the Dictates of true Reason when I conceive the same which I finde that they thought though they are not principles of infallible verity to command beleef yet they are grounds of credibility to sacilitate assent Non domini sed duces to use Seneca's words And I shall more easily embrace that which hath their witness and be more apt to doubt of that which wants their testimony Sola argumenta ex Scripturis esse necessaria Cathol Orthedox Tract 1. q. 10. p. 121. è Patribus autem probabilia saith learned Rivet Their consent I esteem not ut fidei mensuram sed ut testem temporis argumentum historicum which makes certain the matter of fact that such was the doctrine and practice of the first and purer times being registred to us by those that cannot be imagined not to know being so neer nor be suspected to combine falsly to impose upon us being so pious They are not moved to hear men count and call good ways new and the Adversaries of true Doctrine have always loaded it with this Title which confirms them to see the ways of their government have the same lot and therefore this principle of Antiquity yeelds but a popular and fallacious Argument But few I suppose will be moved with this argumentation as not fallacious enough to impose upon popular judgements For First implicitly and interpretatively those good ways are their ways wherein is involved Petitio Principii Secondly if so small a matter confirm their judgement it is suspitious that as small a weight of reason might first settle it Talia sunt alimenta qualia sunt Elementa Thirdly If that be a popular and fallacious argument which is derived from a principle made use of commonly by Hereticks or others thereby to give a specious lustre to their own Opinions and cast an odium on their opposites then Scripture it self may be sentenced to be a principle yeelding onely popular and fallacious arguments for who knows not that most Hereticks have sought to fortifie their Opinions with pretence of Scripture and have upbraided their adversaries with want thereof Fourthly when any pretend antiquity to give countenance to novel and unwarrantable Opinions or Institutions by turning the wrong end of the Prospective to make things at hand seem to be far off the fallacy is not in the principle but the men that abuse and falsly apply it nor lies it in the proposition but the assumption Fifthly seeing as Hierom tells us Mendacium semper imitatur veritatem the argument is the more specious and like to carry more force because subtil falsifiers have assumed it for they being wiser in their Generations would not lay on those colours that had no beauty or lustre nor would they set that stamp on their counterfeit Coyn did they not know it would make it pass more currant Hierom say they is condemned for desiring leave of Augustine to erre with seven Fathers but they dare not nor are willing to give this liberty but yet they take as much when in the question whether Judas communicated of the Lords Supper they mention twelve late Writers and not all of them aut magni aut bonì nominis asserting the negative and ask who would not erre with such as those are But we say though we would not erre with the Fathers yet we less distrust our selves to erre with them or when they are on our side and probably suppose our selves farthest from erring when neerest to them As the Scripture bids us to remember Lots wife so they say to the Pretenders of Antiquity Remember the Gibeonites Had this Memento been limited to false Pretenders of Antiquity it might have been plausible but if themselves had not forgotten to take some of the salt of that Pillar whereinto she was turned to have seasoned their discretions they
They are not the next ages before us that we look upon as they odiously insinuate but the most antient and yet I wish that the present times may not ingratiate and endear the former age notwithstanding its corruptions and have the fate which some think Augustus aimed at in adopting Tiberius that the memory of his Government might be more sweetned by the succession of a worse In the 13. Section for we will still endeavour to collect and unite together what they have scattered of one concernment they seek to enervate the testimony of the antient Church by telling us out of the Lord Verulam That they which too much reverence old times are a scorn to new That the Fathers agreed in mistakes and were divided in truths That the Opinion of the Chiliasts taken for an errour is by Justin Martyr referred to the Apostles Irenaeus affirms that Jesus Christ lived fifty years on earth Lubbertus is cited to say it is the manner of the Fathers when they would commend a thing not knowing its original to refer it to the Apostles and primitive Times In the three first Centuries the Learned are perplexed with spurious works of the Fathers which makes uncertain the state of the Primitive Church which some extend not beyond the Apostles days or third Century and it is stretched too far to the age of Chrysostome We know and acknowledge that the Fathers like the Moon never borrowed so much light from the Sun of the Scriptures as to be clear of all spots Stapleton himself grants there is none of the Fathers in which something erroneous may not be observed they are like the Birds hatch'd at Cair by the warmth of an Oven which have every one some blemish and I wish their errours were of no other alloy than such as the Apologists have detected Piscator Alsted Mead Hackwel Gallus c. whereof that of the Chiliasts themselves dare not stigmatize for an errour and therfore unaptly alleage it but only say it hath been taken for one perchance they are more indulgent thereunto because it is a Darling fostered much fawned upon by many of their Brethren and indeed hath divers more learned assertors than them who consent in the thing though with some difference in the manner and for the conceit of Irenaeus it is a Chronological no Dogmatical errour and Chronologers are one of those three things that never agree Id calumniâ carere debebit saith Sulpitius Severus But because the Fathers might or did erre therefore to give no credit to their Witnesses would be in effect destructive to all kind of humane testimony From hence onely can be concluded that they are not infallible and therefore our understanding not to be captivated into any obedience to their Dictates in that sense we call no man Father save the Ancient of days and that iis in enucleandis fidei controversiis non necessarium est consentire tanquā ab omni exceptione veris Chamier tom l. 1. c. 6. p. 4. Aquin. 1. q. 1. art 8. ad 2. aut etiam in se possunt proferri ut quibus ex certa Suppositione certis etiam circumstantiis hic discernendi rectum ab obliquo usu convenire queat saith Chamier and authoritatibus Canonicae Scripturae utitur proprie ex necessitate argumentando authoritate autem aliorum Doctorum Ecclesiae quasi arguendo ex propriis sed probabiliter c. as Aquiaas But the errours of a single Father or their mutual differences cannot lay any obstructions in our way who lay no such great waight on their singular Opinions yet set much by their general consent in what the most and most famous in every age have delivered as received of them that went before them and as practised or beleeved by them What Lubbertus is alleaged to say will not make either scale theirs or ours to move much with the waight thereof the notion Apostles is not alway taken properly Dr. Ham. Resol 6. quae q. 5. p. 351. And see Parker of the Cross part 2. p. 126. de Baptis Contr. Don. l. 4. c. 24. alii Epist 118. c. 1. or strictly to be understood one great learned man hath manifested it that in the Primitive Times Bishops were usually called Apostles and another hath told us that the ancient Church extended the Apostolical Times beyond the age of the Apostles even to the Nicene Council The ignorance whereof perplexed Baronius to reconcile it How Scithianus and Terebinthus are said to live Temporibus Apostolorum who lived in Aurelians time 300. years after Christ and howsoever yet I know it was the rule of Saint Augustine often inculcated and approved by our principal Divines in matters of fact and practice That which the universal Church holdeth and which was not appointed by Councils but always observed is most rightly believed to have been delivered by Apostolical Authority If some Bastard Writings are put upon the Fathers which like Eaglets being brought forth to the sun are not very hard to be discerned by their inability to endure the light of critical examination there are others which the Learned are agreed upon to bear the characters of their true Off-spring which set the antient Church within our light and prospect and it is no argument that because some coyn is counterfeit therefore none must be current let them reject it if we offer to pay them with false money But I doubt their practice will need some counterfeit Writings to support it for the genuine Works of the Antients will lend it no authority They should much have favoured our ignorance to have pointed at those had their authority been worth our notice who confine the Primitive Church within the age of the Apostles or extend it not beyond the second centeury that we might have tryed what weight their reasons or authority carry in the counter-scales against the generality of the polemical Divines who though primitive be a relation and spoken always with respect to another so that what is primitive in reference to one is not so toward another yet they dilate the antient Church Doctoribus Ecclesiasticis 6. priorum saeculorum veterum patrum adscriberemus titulum Rivet tract de patr Author Tom. 2. p. 648. According to one of the Epocha's the time for the measured purity of the Inner Court and that is the visible Church remaining in its primitive purity is 454. years Mede's Remains on Rev. p. 20. whereunto more reverence and esteem is rendred unto the first five hundred years and within which Latitude of five hundred did Bishop Jewel impale the testimonies which he challenged his adversaries to produce in confirmation of several pieces of Popery and sure the age of Chrysostome which was the latter end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth Century was like the eighth Sphere which though not next to the first mover according to the old obsolete hypothesis yet had more bright stars than all the Orbs beside What they
that Worship without concurring in any sinne save that which they suppose is contracted only by a Communion with such men though not in evil but rather in that which in it self is good and formally as it is a Communion onely with those that are evil That to separate on this account was both the root and pith of the Schisme of the Donatists who did not own any separation from the Catholique Church but impropriated that Church to themselves and held Communion with many Churches of their Model but separated from others and therefore might have put in the same Plea with this but seeing those Churches from which the Apologists separate are Members of the Catholique Church as till they be cut off juridicè aut jure they are so and in this consideration § 9 Eadem est ratio partium totius and all Members are conjoyned to the Body See more of this therefore if they separate from any such particular members they divide from the body of the Catholique Church as I have before proved by the authority of Junius § 24 that it is schismatical so to be torn off ab hac illáve Ecclesia i.e. membro particularis corporis ex infirmitate particulari Next that they remove the antient Land-mark of that distinction between the Church of the Called and that of the Elect may be discerned by any that passeth by their way There are many externally called who are onely relative and notional Saints Saints in the judgment of Charity because they have given their names to Christ entred into an outward Covenant with God and doe make profession of their Faith but such as are effectually called and are united to Christ in virtue as well as profession and in whom the Spirit of Christ is operative by influence of grace and salvation such onely are Elect Saints real Saints in verity Now if they will admit none to an entire Church-fellowship which is not as was said without Communion of Sacraments others that communicate not being not owned by themselves to be of the Church save such as give demonstrative signes that they are elected doe they not quantum ad hominem though it be impossible quoad rem contract the Church of the Called and make it no more extensive than that of the Elect and turn those many that are called into a few that are chosen sure I think this cannot but be visible to any unless to one Cui lumen ademptum And by this meanes also there may be multi hirci intus multae oves foras Hom. Deonibus tom 9. p. 224. Since as Augustine meekly scit praedestinatione praescientiâ oves hircos ille solus qui praedestinare potuit qui praescire si autem multas oves foras errare plangimus vae quorum humeris lateribus cornibus factum est non enim haec facerent nisi fortes oves quae sunt fortes de suis viribus praesumentes quae sunt fortes de sua justitia gloriantes humeris audaces ad impellendum quia non portant sacrinam Dei latera mala conspirantes amici societas pertinaciae cornua erecta elata superbia mitte foras quod non emisti certe ipsa tota causa est quia tu justus alii injusti indignum erat ut justus esset cum injustis indignum scilicet ut frumenta essent inter zizania indignum ut oves inter hircos pascerentur donec Pastor veniret qui in separando non errat ita tu angelus eradicans zizania non te agnoscerem angelum zizania eradicantem nec si jam messis venisset ante messem non tu sed quisquis fuerit non est verus qui designavit messem designavit tempus angeli tibi nomen potes impoere tempus messis non potes breviare ita falsum dicis qui sis quia nondum venit quando sis noli velle zizania eradicare quando tempus non est sed tu ipse intrò redi cum tempus est cornua sunt ista ventilantis non mansuetudo pascentis non expectas finem nesciens quando tibi sit finis unde hoc nisi quia ipsos tanquam hircos accusasti falsò accusasti nam si verè accusasses non te separasses tua separatio illorum est purgatio Lastly for the state of the Church Exponere similitudinem istam ne conati quidem sunt illam similitudinem omnino attingere nolucrant Brevic. collat cum Donatist tom 7. p. 117. Cont. Donat. post collat c. 7. p. 122. tom 7. which is a floor where chaff is heap'd with Wheat a Field where Tares grow intermix'd with Wheat a Net where bad Fish is involved with good c. most of those similitudes Quibus Dominus suorum servorum tolerantiam confirmavit as Augustine they like the Donatists of old whose Copy it seems they have chosen to write after will take no notice of as any way concerning them but I doubt it is onely nihil ad nos because supra nos and they doe not answer it because they cannot durum sed levius fit patientiâ quicquid corrigere est nesas for seeing Ecclesiasticall Communion is described by a Society in the Sacraments and therein principally is constituted and if there shall be a commixtion of evil men with good not onely in the Congregation but also in Una Congregatione paria Sacramenta tractantes as was even now alleaged out of Augustine and not onely in the Word but as idem verbum Dei simul audiunt so also simul Dei sacramenta percipiunt then whatever they suggest to the contrary thus much is gained hereby which will be on their part the loss of the question First that none ought to be so offended with the grossness of their Administrations at home where no separation is made as thereupon to remove S. 9 or desert to have a Communion of Sacraments with such Congregations August de verb. Dom. in Evang. Matth. Serm. 18. tom 10. p. 18. and separating from them to gather themselves into another Church which yet they confess to be the case of divers of them the Corn lay fast in the same Floor with the Chaff and that onely was volatile Non vos seducant perversi paleae nimis leves avolant ante adventum ventilatoris ex area and therefore he directeth elsewhere ex eo ubies disce quid es and consequently adviseth nemo ante tempus ventilationis deserat aream In Psal 25. tom 8. p. 26. Brevicul collat cum Donat. 3. die tom 7. p. 117. Cont. Donat. post collat c. 6. tom 7. p. 122. In Psal 149. tom 8. p. 360. quasi dum non vult pati peccatores nè praeter aream inventus priùs ab avibus colligatur quà m ingrediatur in horreum the good Fishes break not the Net to get out from the bad Commixtos bonis malos intra retia suorum sacramentorum And this commixture will continue while we are
a bad servant mihi accusatio etiam vera contra fratrem displicet as Hierom and though Noah were drunken yet Cham was accursed for discovering his nakedness and however perchance illi quod meruere sed quid tu ut adesses and Lactantius tells us that we murder him in whose death we take complacency though executed by a righteous sentence But though in the natural body the blood and spirits run to cherish any wounded part yet in politick bodies we find it is rather as in an Arch where if a stone be loose the whole frame sets upon it with all its weight and most men are too ready to seeth a kid in his mothers milk that is as Philo interprets to add affliction to the afflicted turpes instant morientibus ursi Et quaecunque minor nobilitate fera est We wisht it were the worst thereof that some men like the unspunne silk of Chies would draw and suck up all moisture we more fear lest this he some of the teeth of that worm that lies at the root of Ministery and that this pretended sweeping and garnishing of the house is onely to make way for seven more wicked spirits and that some men are so blind like Sampson unawares to grind for the Philistines and are deceived by the wooife in sheeps cloathing to seek to hang up the doggs upon pretence they are dumb or mangy and are so fascinated like him at Constantinople whom Nicetas mentions that supposed he had been pushing upon a Serpent when he broke in pieces his own earthen vessels so some may think they are strising at the old Serpent when they are breaking vessels of the Sanctuary Certainly the Jesuites will not be decieved or discouraged from attempting upon this Church by a supposall that because we cast out so many we had Ministers enough to defend the truth against their machinations as the Gaules were disanimated to pursue the seige of the Capitol as not reducible by famine because the Romans cast out over the walles all their provision of bread Lastly They bear false witness against us by mis-interpreting our words and then spiâ—in our face and buffet us they accuse us to say that they shape Presbytery to Popery and this they say is the dreggs of this bitter Cup. And this had been dreggs indeed yea crassi gutta veneni had it dropt from our pen and had made it a cup of abomination if this had lain in the bottome thereof but sure it is the dreggs of the cup of their fancy and like to Alexander the sixth the cup they have mixed for us will envenome themselves Nihil est Antipho quin male narrando possit depravarier tu id quod boni est excerpis dicis quod mali est The Apologists carry some analogy with the Samaritaus when the Jewes prespered then they were brethren but if they were under water the Samaritan would drench himself in water if he had but toucht a Jew so if the Presbyterians be about the Zenith they are calculated also for the same Meridian so as in their own words to be neerer to them than to Independents but if in the Nadir they are Antipodes to them having fitted their Church way in such a latitude as to suit with every elevation formed it like the Giraffa made up of a Libbard Hart Buff Camel that none can well know what to call it of late though intruth they are onely dow-baked Independents and like the froggs generated of dust after it is fermented with certain showers are but half made up part earth and part conformed yet most often they take the livery of Presbytery and the paper upon that supposition inferred that their way being obtruded under that notion gave occasion to some that took that for the face which was but a vizor to suspect that Presbytery was modelled and cast into the like mould as Popery Sands Europae speculum p. 3. where the Prelates made their greatness wealth and honor the very rules whereby to souare out the Canons of faith and then set Clerks on work to devise arguments to uphold them and this odious suspition in others was a spring of grief to the friends of Presbytery who could not without indignation hear some say of Presbytery as that Cardinal did at the bustling and factions Elections in the Conclave Ad hunc modum fiunt Romani pontifices Of this pinch of the inference they will not be sensible nor do seek to clear their way of this stumbling block viz. that it is a way which leads onely to their own ends of power and greatness but turning out of the way extravagantly tells us that men that like not the restraint of their lusts and we must needs be those men or whosoever else they be perchance they cannot think fit that their lusts be restrained by giving liberty to others lusts and letting them do what they list as Vives saith Philostratus corrected Homers lies by greater lies by any Church government for if they like not theirs of necessity they will not abide any cry out of Popery Covetousness Ambition Praelacy c. which are but fig leaves to cover their nakedness But their paper leaves are not worth a figg to vail that cause which they have left naked of defence for si hac Pergama dextra if this plea may defend a government then all una hac defensa fuissent this might be pleaded in defence of any the most tyrannous governours they might also inferre that because some like not the restraint of their lusts by any government therefore themselves do not govern according to their lusts and Bellarmine might with as much reason conclude that whereas Cyprian saith Heresies and Schismes have no other spring but onely because the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest and Iudge for the time in the Church is reminded to be In the stead of Christ therefore the Bishop of Rome usurps no unjust authority nor is a tyrant in the title or exercise of his power A man that is not fond of Presbytery that is such a man as themselves so coldly and disaffectionately they speak it may say this for Presbytery what ever it be else a suspitious Aposiâ—pesis as if it were somewhat else which I lle quidem caelare cupit turpÃque pudore Tempora purpureis cogit velare tiaris is the strongest barre that ever was set against Popery We shall plead nothing in bar to that supposition being farre from going about to lessen their good opinion of Presbytery which we would rather cherish and do wish they did like and love it better and were more Presbyters but we cannot illis dare nominis hâ—jus honorem and may rather expostulate quid pulchra vocabula pigris Obtendis vitiis or complaine with Cato in Salust I am pridem equidem nos vera rerum vocabula amifimus so as Aristippus said of precious ointments malè sit Cynaedis qui diffamarum beshrew them that by incrusting
arrogates to the Church that even fabulous and apocryphal things by their authority may become canonical But the imperfection is scored up upon their inability to do more their reformation being not the measure of their will but their power Although they otherwhere left weightier things untoucht yet in the 17. Sect. they cannot let a scruple passe without handling the poyse thereof but however careful they be of weight they are injurious of measure or else they would never have said their reformation was not the measure of their will but power Though they may suppose themselves so pure as necessarily to be separate from the common Masse yet their language is not pure from impropriety But not to run descant in so poor a ditty I suppose they would have said passively their reformation is not measured by or is not according to the measure of their will but their power and perchance should more truly have said their will seconded with their power is the measure of their reformation But if they are conscious that they ought to do otherwise than they have done but cannot do it then they should have said they knew that their way is not free from imperfection not that they knew it not to be free But as it impresseth wonder to hear that their reformation is measured by their power not their will since it is with them as the wanton Emprosse said to her lustful Son in law quic quid libet licet so it strikes fear to consider it seeing they have power enough to receed and remit somewhat of their rigor and if they want power to carry it higher and go further then we are in a sad case that are secured onely by that which kept the Christians as Bellarmine tells us from deposing heathen Emperours quia defuere vires They next set forth their Eirenicon and first wish an accommodation between them and their dear brethren of the riged Independency But they agree too well already to divide and rent the Church for as the peace of Hereticks is the warre of the Church the war of the one the peace of the other so the Ceraunia of our quietness might be bred in the midst of their thundrings one against another we shall less fear and better deal with their rods and axes if they were single and not in a bundle Secondly They professe what they would do propter unitatem Donati that will do so little propter unitatem Christi they would go many miles barefoot to meet peace with them but I wish they would go with their feet shod with the preparation of peace toward their people Thirdly They give their sense of the calamitous consequences of the discords in the Church and we are as conscious dissidia nostra sunt amicorum dispendia hostium compendia as Hierom publica irae divinae incendia as Junius and to sacilitate an harmony between them Fourthly They propound the opinion of Mr. Baxter in some branches it seem some others of them bear such fruit as set their teeth on edge what passage they reflect upon I cannot divine the page quoted by them having nothing of that concernment in that last edition but to make even with them I shall desire them to peruse and perpend what is formerly cited and which he delivers in his Saints everlasting Rest Part 321. Sect. 7. p. 3. and Part 4. Sect. 3. p. 104 105. of the edition of 1653. I have elsewhere set down by these waters of Siloam and not hanged up but sounded there my poor harp and I may therefore here Claudere jam rives seeing elsewhere I hope Sat prata biberunt I will onely say that however I affectionately vote for unity for as Chrysostom Integrum si in multa dividitur In 1 Cor. 1. Homil. 3. non modo non multa fiunt sed unum absumitur as the Pumice stone swims being whole and sinks when broken into parts and passionately bewail our divisions who when we are on a light flame and half burnt to ashes yet like the flames raised by burning the dead bodies of Eteocles and Polynices we cannot unite and conjoyne yet I should as passionately regret to see an union made up at the onely cost of the Presbyterian that their coalition with Independents should be like the conjunction of Rivers with the Sea which falling into it lose their names and course and vitiate their qualities or that they should become one as the Picts did with the Scots where the former were as it were eaten up and digested by the later Nation Let the Independents returne to them not they turn to those nor to be like Pisistratus the tyrant of Athens who when some of his party had revolted and fortified Phyle against him he came to them with his baggage and professed that if he could not perswade them to return to him he was resolved to abide with them I know not whether it gives impression of more wonder or indignation to see old Tragaedies once played between the Orthodoxe and Arians acted over again under other names and in another Scene whereas at the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia the worse and lesser party outwitted and overacted the better greater and they that at first pretended onely to desire Churches for themselves grew at length to that powerful insolence to deny them to others And as much ingratitude is observable in it that those which like the Ivy grew up by embracing the tree should exhaust the sapp and strength thereof and like Quicksilver should eat out and consume the mettal they closed with so perchance somewhat of justice may be considerable therein that as it was said of Henry the fourth of France That he fell by that Religion to which he fell so all the compliances of the one party have onely occasioned them to suffer from those whom they have too indulgently suffered and as when that King was wounded in the mouth by Castel he receaved an admonition That having denied the truth with his mouth he was there wounded and if he cast it out of his heart he was like to take in the knife there also so I shall humbly reminde those Presbyterians which have varyed and lapsed toward an Independent model that since such applications and condescentions have been onely paid with contempt and have borne no other fruit but obstinacy in the one part and danger to the other that they would adhere unto and cherish their proper principles which need covet no other likeness than their own because truth is incomparably fairer than the Graecian Helena as Augustine nor pray in any support from carnal prudence because honesty is the best policy and remembring whence they are fallen would do their first works lest their Candlestick be shaken aswell as their light hath been somewhat contracted and obscured They would perswade us they comply not with riged Independents but then it seems they are to be ranked among the gentle Independents The
according to the corporeall pasturage to be admitted to one and excluded from another Ordinance not to be cut off from communion because not excommunicate and yet to be denyed to communicate in the Sacrament wherein Church communion mainly consisteth to enter upon their Churches as it were by conquest and seise all mens right to the Sacrament when they have not forfeited it by scandal and to admit none into possession that will not hold of them and at their will and without any orderly proceeding or censuring men for special scandals obstinately continued in after admonition to shut out whole Churches because they have not merited their approbation to admit none but those that shall watch one over another while some of the Society live twenty and perchance more miles asunder to forbid those to do their dutie who they suppose cannot do it so well as they should when the duty is essentially good and necessary and the abuse but accidentall and doubtfull and the hope of good is founded in the certain goodnesse of the thing and the fear of evill raised in an uncertain suspition of the indisposition of the person which is evill may be corrected by the good he is to partake of Saepe mihi ignota est humana conscientia Aug. Contra Lit. Petil. l 1. c. 7. sed certus sum de Christi misericordia to dispense also with themselves in a certain duty for an uncertain hazard and to deny others a good thing for fear it may do evill upon which account all good things in the world may be suppressed those and a multitude of other inordinatenesses in their way we have formerly shewed as things came in order in our course and it will not be decent here to repeat and to make this Section an Index of the whole Treatise SECT XXVI Jeremy 15.19 Discussed and vindicated THe second proofe is from Jeremy 15.19 If thou takest forth the pretious from the vile c. but those res secundae will not be the prosperity of their cause and if they would separate pretious Arguments from the vise they might lessen and decrease the number of their proofs as they have done of their Church We may give them what they conclude out of the premises in this Section and yet it will be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Greek proverb A giftlesse gift and be worth them nothing For after all their vapours what do they lymbeck out of this Text but this conclusion More is their duty then a doctrinall separation in applying the word And if this would keep them quiet they might have this without more crying either as a duty or as a power We never have denied them all authority to separate men from the Church by excommunication as well as from the world by preaching the word the question is not of the act of Separation but of the manner and the objects who are those vile and how the separation must be made but to inferre a separation is warranted by Gods word therefore their way of Separating is warrantable is an argument A genere ad specicm affirmativè Did they put none into the account of vile but such onely as had given scandall by notorious crimes and not those also which had not by submission to their discipline merited their appobation and become pretious alone at the price of their freedome and to cease to be vile must contract a kind of villenage servilly to hold at the will of another did they separate in a judiciall way such particular persons from the Congregations and not whole Congregations by an arbitrary sentence or rather not separate themselves from the congregation we should not interrupt nor check with them in their way though it be not drawn out by any line in this Text and we should grant it were right Discipline though not rooted naturally in this Scripture as it might be right Ivy that as Nicremberge tells us grew out of a Stagges horn and a right blade of Corn that sprung from a Womans Nose yet neither was naturalll to that place What they write therefore of Excommunication is but as the shedding of inke by the Sepia to escape discovery It argues the deformity of their way that they dare not shew it in its own face but with such paint and under this dilguise for Excommunication is that which we neither oppose nor they contend for and for their part there is an observable testimony thereof in that they produce very few of those Scripture proofs which are usually alleaged for and do pregnantly assert it but because those are not so aptly conducing to their scope and purpose they bring forth others little or nothing pertinent to that matter and from whence it cannot be otherwise deduced then as the Metaphysicks say that by long circuit any truth may be derived from another and perchance they withhold those stronger Arguments least they might disparage theirs by comparison as the Painter that had grossely pourtraied a Cock set a Boy by the Tub to stave off all living Cocks that they might not discredit his rude draught They enumerate sundry kinds or wayes of Separation but it had been as proper to their undertaking as sutable to the expectation of reason to have demonstrated how all of these were founded in this text or supported thereby for when they simply and nakedly affirm them to be so in magna sermenis latitudine uno brevissimo verbo quod dicitur proba in arctissimas coarctaris angustias as Augustine to Petilian Though some streames turn another way as Maldonat expounds the words thus If O people to whom he thinks the Lord to speak thou pick out and make choise of the true Prophets from the salse and others whom A Lapide mentions interpret If thou sever my precious Word from the vile Doctrines of the Jewes Prcciosum à vili seperat qui verum falsum bonum malum non codem loco habet Quistorpius annot in lec Chrys in Gen. c. 1. hom 3 tom 1. p. 4. in Math. c. 25. h. 27. tom 2. p. 169. Gregory l. 3. Moral Willet in Levit p. 363. Cateri in loc A verbis Judaeorum minacibus sed levibus vilibus infirmis quia ipsi invalidi sunt minas suas explere non poterant si fortiter animosè adhaeseris verbo meo contempseris Judaeorum minas as Menochius or Si verbum meum divinum tanquam pretiosum thesaurum amplexus fucris custodicris prae vili acervo rationum humanarum ad pusillanimitatem te excitantium as Tirinus from whom Sanctius much dissents not Si discrimen aliquod agnoscas statuasque inter ca quae vilia sunt quaeque ludus nugae existimari debent inter ludentium nimirum consilia ludrica inter me meaque mandata and this Piscator saith is a fit interpretation and Diodate assents to it yet the main current of Interpreters runs toward a Separation of
Persons rather then Things If thou shalt separate or draw out of the vile world the precious people of God converting them by the Preaching of the Word and into this Channel flow the Expositions of Hierom Chrysostom Gregory Theodoret Hugo Thomas Lyranus VVillet do Castro A Lapide Sa and Sanctius also Piscator and the English Annotations think this the more genuine Exposition which Diodate also mentions viz. If in thy teaching thou put a difference between the godly and the wicked by confirming and comforting the one and by sharply reproving convincing and menacing the other But this still is only a Doctrinal Separation and though of Persons yet of them alone in reference to the Word preached and however some men may happily apply this text in an accommodate and transumptive sense to a Separation from the Sacrament yet that this should be here properly ment or ought litterally so to be understood or especially that it should be so contracted and restrained to command only a Separation from the Sacrament and from no other Ordinance which though it might better suite with their Model for otherwise as it might countenance their Separating from one Ordinance so it should condemn their not separating from other yet sorts not with their marginal quotations out of Mr. Stock who speaks of excluding from Prayers also so that they can make no Mercury for themselves out of that Stock as for all or any of this they have produced neither reason nor the authority of any Interpreter and if they will have their interpretations imitate the Spiders Web spun only out of their own bowels nulli debeo they will also resemble it in this that they will be soon swept down and in the mean time serve only to catch flyes so as well Reason as Authority forbids this sense for Separation from the Sacrament of persons unfit is the separating the vile from the precious not the precious from the vile and to say they separate themselves from others is in effect to say they Excommunicate themselves not others Separate and Excommunicate being anciently the same and passing under one notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless perhaps they rather separate themselves as the Pharesees did who indeed had their name from Separation and were also called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore also whereas telling us elsewhere of a Negative Separation in a Church not from it which we have formerly shewed is negatively separated from Reason and the Authority pretended they speak also here of a Church separating from scandalous Members of her own Body or separating such as are scandalous from her the latter we acknowledge may be rightly done but know it not to be that which they do but that this and the former expression should be consonant in sense or the former consonant with sense viz. That the Body should separate from the Members the whole from the parts will be very strange for any sensible man to opine but indeed it suits not altogether amiss with their way where they pretend to separate into a new Church from the other Members of the Church so as Hoc non secundum veram sed secundùm vestram seutentiam vobis rectissime dicitur as Augustine to Petilian If the text alleaged allows only a Doctrinal Separation in Preaching and denyes any other then Excommunication falls Quae nondum data sunt stulte negata putas Must the text needs deny what it doth not affirm If Excommunication be not here asserted can it no where else be ratified But surely if Excommunication expect no other support if it here find none it hangs by as frail a thread as Dionysius his Sword over Damocles his head It may be a Plant which the heavenly Father hath planted yet not grow out of this ground and it disparageth the strength thereof to suppose it hath no better root and they give it no firmer fastning when they tell us That Church Censures were under the Old Testament and ask Who knows it not But because we are so ignorant as not to know it out of Scripture they might have done consultly if it were so obvious to have brought forth their evidence and to have shamed our ignorance Non semis in conflictu in quo veritas quaeritur cùm probatio non sequitur quà m vana inepta fit narratio said Augustine to Petilian We hope we are not forgetful thereof through carnal liberty but rather think they haue forgotten themselves to use such carnal liberty to censure us but till they reflect some of their new light upon us we cannot see any Precept or Example of Excommunication in the Old Testament or of Suspersion in the New and we think it as likely that in this place Suspension which is their only way of processe was Prophesied of and a Canon made for regulating the administration of that one Sacrament when it was not then instituted nor any other Sacrament expressed or implyed in the context as that the Society of the Jesuits was as some dream foretold in that of 1 Cor. 1.9 God is faithful by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus 1. q. 32. art 1. q 46. art 2. And we shall commend to the Apologists a good rule of Aquinas Cùm quis ad probandam fidem Christianam adducit rationes quae non sunt cogentes cedit in irrisionem infidelium credunt enim quod hujusmodi rationibus iunitamur propter eas credimus so as whereas they suppose we limit and straiten the text for our own ends we think upon such account it had been more subservient to their ends to have forborn to insist upon such non-cogent Arguments for some might have been facil to believe that men so eager and confident in their way had better Arguments if they had not produced these and they might so also have redeemed themselves from that which Augustine calls Haereticorum cavend◠calliditas De unit Ec. l. c. 13. volentium convertere Dei verba à veritate propter quam dicta sunt ad perversitatem in qua ipsi sunt But lastly whereas they conclude That if some separation must be made then examination and such proper means must be also these are not only ten times sodden Coleworts but grown so faetid and rancid that the very stirring of them though but to remove them may offend and therefore we shall refer the Reader to what we said to correct them when they were brought forth fresh SECT XXVII 2 Thess 3.2 and 6. opened and redeemed from their misapplications Whether anciently the Commerce with any not Excommunicated were avoided What Soc ety Excommunication cuts off from How Suspension might be used and is abused AElian tells us of one Mizaldus that was so light that they were constrained to hang Lead at his heels least he should be blown away by every puffe of wind As light verily is that Argument which appears in this maniple drawn from 2