they must come at Pyworthy where he that tells them so is Pastor of no Church there those that are so told are not the flock of any Pastor there they might as justly call them to Exceter and would they come there they must notwithstanding come under this probation and wait upon their good pleasure and gracious opinion which is the thing questioned and sets the business in the same posture as before after all these palliations So that in the conclusion when they tell us elsewhere he that puts them to prove that persons knowing and not scandalous may be excluded shall hear of their refusal we must say to them we do indeed hear of their refusal but it is onely to prove this not to do it whiles they exclude these whom they dare not say and if they did we should knowingly gainsay that they are ignorant or scandalous To the second that my Concessions look one way my Arguments another as if like the Parthians I turn my face from that mark I shoot at or like Faustus that pretended to write against Pelagius yet half justified him it had been a just debt if not to me that I might see my error yet to themselves that we might see their truth and ingenuity to have instanced in any one argument of mine that pleads against the power and duty of Excommunication No when the Civil Magistrate is become both the Sonne and Father of the Church I doe not think that the opening of his Praetorium should shut up the Ecclesiastical forum exterius nor the exercising of his sword lay the keys aside to rust Let them not be tryed to open other Locks than they were made for that Moses may have no cause to say the Sons of Levi take too much upon them we shall no more repine at Aarons keys or rod than at Moses sword I am sensible these are different Administrations and have several reasons and ways and ends There are some Crimes which need Censure and sometime the Civil Laws take no hold thereof nor can the Civil Courts take cognizance of them and the Magistrate punisheth though the Offender repent and is satisfied when the pain is suffered or mulct is paid whether he be penitent or not The Church hath a contrary method in her punishments and which are not properly punishments but castigations the holy and prudential ends thereof I have elsewhere displayed I do not therefore hold it fit to excommunicate Excommunication though I judge the undue conduct and culpable exercise thereof to be suspended Let it not be 1. too frequently inflicted it being Medicine not Food and Physicians tell us that Medicines lose their efficacy by ordinary use and though Cacochymie give indication yet continual Purgings brings the habitude of the body to a cachexy and in the Timpany to let out all the water without stops and intermissions destroys the Patient 2. Nor too precipitate Nulla unquam de hac morte hominis cunctatio longa est And Avenzoar they say trembled three days before ever he administred a Purge 3. Nor ordinarily until after frequent admonitions afflatur omne priusquà m percutitur let all other good means be used Cuncta priùs tentanda Let it be as Physicians say of Antimony that it must be like a cowardly Captain to come up to the charge last of all and after all others let it be onely upon obstinate impenitence and when it is immedicabile vnlnus then quaecunque medicamenta non sanant ea sanat ferrum as saith Hypocrates 4. Let it not be for any thing but scelus or affine sceleri that which is interpretativa negatio fidei gross abominable iniquities whereby the Church may be defamed and the enemies have cause to blaspheme and such as may be stumbling blocks to other mens Consciences such sinnes as appear omnibus execrabilia as Augustine and are excessus peccatorum as Estius speaks let it be not inflicted for smaller faults which else would be as Parisiensis tells us as if to kill a Fly on the fore-head we should knock a man in the head with a beetle and let not such purity be required from men in order to their safeguard and immunity from this Censure as Anabaptists exact who as Marlorat tells us Marlorat in 1 Cor. 51. Ball tryal of the grounds of Separat c. 10. p. 187. Ante Communionem protestantur se tantam habere Charitatem quantam Christus in cruce pendens 5. Let it be for such Crimes as are notorious by publike notice not if one or other though perhaps the Minister be one of them do know thereof but let them be such as are scandalous in their course commonly defamed by evidence of fact or confession or proof of witnesses and if not by innumeris documentis testibusque as Augustine pleads yet by more than one for uni testi ne Catoni quidem credendum est even when the great cry of Sodom came up yet God went down to see whether they had done altogether according to the cry Si regnas jube si judicas cognosce 6. Let it be done humili charitate benignâ severitate sine typho elationis in hominem cum luctu deprecationis ad Deum Aug. cont Parmen l. 3. c. 2. Tom. 7. p. 13. and as it is said of Augustus Priùs suas lachrymas quà m alienum sanguinem effudit for otherwise hujus enim summi rarÃque voluptas Nulla boni quoties animo corrupta superbo Plus aloës quà m mellis habet Let it be thus regulated without humane wrong in hypothesi and let it in thesâ— pass as of divine right The greater Excommunication I mean for as concerning Suspension which they call the lesser Excommunication I am deceived if it may not be called the least in the Kingdome of Heaven the Tree from which that Wood was gathered was of a later rise and spring in the Paradise of God not of the first planting and hath no divine ground to fix its root in if there be any Characters in Scripture asserting expresly or by plain and easie consequence the divine right thereof See this amply discussed or any footsteps thereof in the tract and course of all the ancient Church so as that any were suspended from the Sacrament that were not separate from the body of the Church by Excommunication those characters and footsteps are too small to be discerned by my dimme eyes § 15 without the help of spectacles to be lent me or my Horizon too narrow to reach them unless their hand like that in a margin pointing to the places shall lead me neerer to them Tertullian I am sure defines Excommunication of what kind soever it be à Communicatione Orationis conventûs omnis sancti commercii relegatio I am not ignorant there is frequent mention in the Casuists and Schoolmen of excommunicatio minor but these bear no weight where these men hold the beam yet notwithstanding it may have place and be of
Cor 11.28 Reinforced and vindicated Negative Arguments whether this be such Whether all revealed in Scripture be necessary Christs not examining his Disciples The sense of antient and modern Interpreters upon that of 1 Cor. 11.28 the testimony of Paraeus vindicated Examination but an after-reckoning to Auricular Confession and built upon the same Foundations the Consequences thereof alike to be feared 149. DIATRIBE SECT IV. No pre-examination in the antient Church save of Catechumeni Sending the Eucharist to persons absent and strangers The institution and abolishment of Confession Liberty to approach the Lords Table upon self-examination Whom the antient Church excluded from the Eucharist The Judgment of the Fathers Casuists and School-men concerning those that are to be admitted and to be debarred To partake was antiently commanded as a common Duty The omission reprehended the common right asserted 181. DEFENCE SECT XIII The honour and interest of the Ministery Confession of sins as necessary as Examination Whether their principles have any affinity with the Roman or may be subservient and manuductive to Popery The antient Discipline most like to advance Reformation What were the Catechumeni Energumeni Penitents The several degrees of the latter The Church-way of the Apologists hath no conformity with the antient Church How the Heathens proscribed profane persons from their Holies VVhether the Antients went too farre in Censures A testimony of Albaspinus falsified by them cleared Another of Chrysostomes vindicated 185. SECT XIV Sending the Eucharist to strangers and persons absent whether a corruption VVhether the Fathers were prodigal of Christs blood Of admitting to the Eucharist presently after Baptisme Of the Literae formatae and communicatoriae 182. post 185. SECT XV. Of daily communicating of receiving at Easter all the People anciently communicated No man to be repelled upon the private knowledge of the Minister or other Whether all did partake the Lords Supper that heard the Word What sinnes may exclude from the Sacrament Whether the ancient Church knew or practised any such Censure as Suspension The Negative proved the Arguments for the Affirmative profligated Penitents were first excommunicated What Communion anciently did signifie What Abstinency denoted What was the Lay-Communion What was meant by removing from the Altar What Suspension anciently signified and in what sense that notion was used What the School determines of giving the Eucharist to manifest and occult sinners Suarez imposterously alleaged by them What Suspicion may warrant an Exclusion Whether their way of Separation be conformable to the Ancient Of their care to keep men off from the Sacrament The Application of a passage in Chrysostome redeemed from their Exceptions Whether there be reason to examine dispositively to hearing the Word aswell as to receiving the Sacrament and danger to the Unworthy in the one aswell as in the other The casting of Pearl before Swine and giving holy things unto Dogs what it intends The difference between the Word and Sacraments All not anciently admitted to all the Word The Sacrament multifariously proved to be a converting Ordinance and this to be the common judgment of Protestants What effects may be hoped onely by seeing the Administration without partaking The Sophisme discussed He that partakes worthily is converted already he that eates unworthily eates damnation VVhether men are prohibited those Duties which they cannot well and duly discharge The moral works of natural men 186. DIATRIBE SECT V. By a free Communion there is no damnum emergens by pollution of the Ordinances Minister or Communicants the visible Church is aggregated of good and evil It is Schisme to renounce Communion of Sacraments with evil men not duly censured the administration not to be intermitted because all are not sufficiently prepared or those that are unworthy may partake The similitudes defeated of giving a cup of poysoned wine onely with admonition Of giving a Legacy to Schollars of such a capacity and parts which the Trustees cannot otherwise distribute Of being guilty of the sins we hinder not The weak to be encouraged and promoved by admission As much danger by mix'd Communion in the Word and Prayers as in the Sacrament The Reasons pretended to debar from the one as argumentative to exclude from the other Matth. 7 6. examined VVhether the receiving the Sacrament be a Duty injoyned to all and a good work in all VVhether it be a converting Ordinance VVhat the Sacraments seal and how VVhether they confer grace The same evil effects ensue by male administration of discipline as by a free communion and the same reasons which forbid separation in the one do also in the other case 235. DEFENCE SECT XVI The removing the scandalous by the power of the Keys no ingredient of our question nor any part of the Discipline which they practise What scandals may deprive of the Sacrament Whether formal Professors if they could be known were to be admitted How holy things may be polluted As the Sacrament so in like manner other holy things may be defiled By a free admission the Sacrament is not polluted by or to the Minister nor others that communicate worthily and it is no more dangerous for the unworthy to come than to keep off Whether mix'd Communion be a burden of sinne or pain In what cases it is lawful to have Communion of Sacraments with evil men The godly were alwayes commix'd with the wicked in Communion of Sacraments proved through the History of the Scripture Sacrifices were of like nature with Sacraments and for offering or eating thereof no signs or tryals of real Holiness were required Whether there be an equal necessity of profession of Faith at the receiving of the Eucharist and of Baptisme The Church of Corinth was corrupt yet in reforming thereof the Apostle prescribed no such tryal When and how far admonition and reproof may be sufficient Of Ambrose his proceeding against Theodosius What are the effects of the society of evil men with good The errors of Audius Novatus and Donatus Whether the Apologists symbolize with them Church-fellowship consists chiefly in Communion of Sacraments they make the Church of the Called to be no larger than that of the Elect. The state of the Church according to the Parables of the Floor Field and Net Matth. 13. Our Thesis asserted in the express words of the Antients The Pastor of Corinth not reproved for permitting mix'd Communions 1 Cor. 4.21 considered The Parable of the Marriage-Feast Of sealing men Their too free Pulpits no free Tables of Preaching without Ordination A recapitulation of much of the Discourse 255. DIATRIBE SECT VI. Whether this Discipline suit with Rom. 14.1 10. or check not with Charity relish not of the Pharisee Whether it sort with the qualifications of the High-Priest Heb. 5.2 Or the example of Hezekias Whether it smell not of Diotrephes Of examining persons set beyond suspicion Whether their way were cast in a like Mould with Popery Of their Elders their way is independent A complaint of our Schismes
and Heresies Perswasions to mildness and moderation 307. DEFENCE SECT XVII They misrepresent their Church-way Whether the Queries of the Diatribe were doubts of Friends or Enemies What are properly scruples 318. SECT XVIII Rom. 14.1 10. discussed Whether they judge or despise their Brethren Psal 15.4 vindicated No other Qualifications required in order to communicating in a Church-member having a dogmatical Faith but to be without scandal whether they reject onely the wicked whether their way render them not guilty of temerarious judgment of judging the heart of bearing infirmities of moral men 320 SECT XIX 1 Cor. 13.7 considered whether they suspect not much evil believe or hope little good of their people of examining the knowing to be exemplar to the ignorant or to nanifest their humility whether it be their duty to submit to such a passive examination whether to call them to it be not directly to detract from them or interpretatively to diffame them small matters are often great in the consequence 2 Cor. 11.2 examined the properties of charity in hoping and believing all the ignorance charged is not to know it to be duty to submtt to their commands whether conversion may be sudden whether the Church have loss or gain by these ways of pretended Reformation 332 SECT XX. Whether the Apologists are charitably suspected or can be justly charged with Pharisaism whether their actings proceed out of tenderness of conscience A paralel between the Apologists and Pharisees in some things 369 169 SECT XXI What was Diotrephes what his ambition whether the Apologists exceed not the bounds of Ministerial power by bringing all under triall excluding and not for scandal and that so many and by common continual practice whether this check not with 1 Peter 5.3 whether those they reject are scandalous themselves separated and left the Church behinde them Of Ecclesiastical power what it is and how far extensive The duty of Stewards It is Christ's honour to have an universal Church Their actings 1. Not commanded or warranted by Gods VVord 2. They act solely Of their Elders of ruling Elders in general not by divine right yet a prudent constitution requisite to be continued in some way the interest of the whole Church in censures the Elders Representatives of the Church whether the ancient Church knew any such 3. They act arbitrarily of the former Bishops the Flowers of the Apologists Canina facundia which they cast on the Opposites of their way the aspersions wiped off and some of them reflected of small things and whether their Injunctions are such what may be the consequences thereof viz. their own power and greatness in the intention which yet in effect may be thereby lessened whether their promiscuous examination be to prevent respect of persons of examining persons known to be knowing of the Shekel of the Sanctuary of their aviling of their people and thereby giving advantage to the Papists to upbraid us of the former Bishops the lack of light in some places through want of some to hold it forth whether the Diatribe aspersed Presbytery to be modelled like Popery the Apologists no friends to Presbytery their way hath some analogy with Popery and accidental tendency thereunto 378 178 SECT XXII Of Independents their godliness their Schism the confessed imperfection of the way of the Apologists their desire of an union with the Independents an admonition to the Presbyterians the confounding of Churches and Parishes by the Apologists their gathering of Churches whether they are guilty of disorder against Law whether Magick were laid to their charge whether they are culpable of Schism and Sedition or injury to other Ministers of the hatching others Eggs like the Partridge 414 214 SECT XXIII VVhy they have not the Sacrament in their own Churches why onely at Pyworthy whether it be no great matter to be called or drawn thither Of their return to their own Churches How they stigmatize the People and judge their hearts Of serving the times they confess the Word and Sacraments to be the same thing what thereupon followes 426. 226 SECT XXIV VVhether they are Butchers or Surgeons VVhether guilty of Schisme Of negative and positive Schisme VVhat are just causes of separation VVhether our Saviour separated from the Jewish Church for instance in eating the Passover They condemn what they practise by confounding Churches and by separation They grant Professors to be visible Saints which destroys their Platform Their Reasons why all sorts are to be admitted to the Word and Prayer VVhether there are not better Reasons to warrant a like admission to the Sacrament VVhether the same conclude it not VVhether the Churches of England are all true Churches Sacraments Notes of the Church and therefore communicable to all Church-Members they grant Discipline enters not the definition of a Church yet they separate for want thereof VVhether they may not aswell deny Baptisme to the Children as the Eucharist to the Parents 434. 234. SECT XXV Their great abuse and distortion of Scripture with what a train of Consequences their Arguments are far-fetch'd they are borrowed from the Donatists Papists Brownists Independents none of them conclude the question as themselves have stated it the Argument raised from 1 Cor. 14.40 examined Whether it be a glorious and comfortable practice that none approach the Lords Table save holy persons Whether their way be warranted by the Laws The moderating of Censures Whether their way have like ground with the antient Discipline in receiving in Penitents Whether there be order and decency in mix'd Communions The lesser good to be omitted to acquire the greater the confusion and disorder of their wayes 250. 450. SECT XXVI Jeremy 15.19 Discussed and vindicated 264. 464. SECT XXVII 2 Thes 3.2 6. Opened and redeemed from their misapplications Whether antiently the Commerce with any not excommunicate were avoided VVhat society Excommunication cuts off from How Suspension might be used and is abused 267. 467. SECT XXVIII 1 Cor. 5.11 Ventilated and the Chaff of their Interpretation dispersed Whether we may have communion in sacred things with such as we may not have society with in civil 274. 474. SECT XXIX Matth. 7.6 The sense thereof enucleated and shewed not to be subservient to their purpose but odiously abused VVhether Ministers may act in Censures alone and upon their own knowledge 281. 481. SECT XXX 1 Cor. 11.27 sequent Discussed of eating and drinking unworthily VVhether there be a necessity of examining all because some cannot examine themselves Whether any irregenerate man can examine himself VVhether this tends not to introduce Auricular Confession Jude 3. opened 288. 488. SECT XXXI 1 Tim. 5.22 Interpreted and answered Of Principals and Accessories 1 Tim. 3.10 considered Not like Reasons to examine those that are to communicate and those that are to be ordained 293. 493. SECT XXXII 1 Pet. 3.15 Heb. 13.17 Discussed VVhat obedience is due to Ministers and what power they have 497. 297. SECT XXXIII Levit. 13.5 2 Chron. 23.19
Sacrifices or Sacrament St. Paul begot the Corinthians to Christ and that body by many distempers soon grew corrupt and in purifying thereof the Apostle prescribes no such looking to the state of those that were to be admitted to the Sacrament he onely commands every man to examine himself none to examine another not to take our Prospect at too great a distance The Morning Star of the Reformation arose to dispel and clear the contagious Mist of Popish Errors Superstitions and Usurpations yet we cannot discern the least foot-step of any such way of examination but whosoever professed a desire of Communion with them was accepted and received into fellowship with them in the Sacraments unless by any notorious crime he forfeited it 7. And if the question thus stated be the mark the Apologists shoot at let us with a touch onely and in general here try how their arrows will fit or reach it They have mustered up in the 25. and following Sections sundry Arguments grounded on Texts of Scripture to verifie their judgment and defend their practice Doth any of them conclude the question thus stated I beseech you try in which of their Syllogismes is this Thesis the conclusion It is necessary in the reformation of a long corrupt Church that all members thereof submit to some examination of their knowledge Nay which of them mentions any examination onely one Text speaks of giving an answer but not to the purpose or which specifies the Sacrament as that in order whereunto the duty injoyned is to be performed one excepted where is a command for men to examine themselves none to submit themselves to be examined by another The withdrawing from noting not eating with not giving holy things or casting pearles shutting up keeping out c. is to be understood in their own sense of men of wicked lives nothing here intended of men defective in knowledge and neither can examination be concluded out of the Texts but by making petitio principii the medium viz. that what is there injoyned as duty cannot be complyed with but by such examination But then for the limiting and restraining of all to the time of Reformation of a long corrupt Church the Chymists that can extract oyl out of steel and flint volitant velut umbrae compared with these men whose omnipotence of Logick can create something out of nothing Who ever till now suspected that onely in the reformation of a corrupt Church things ought to be done in order and decency The precious to be separated from the vile that we should be delivered from unreasonable and evil men and withdraw our selves from every brother that walketh disorderly That we must not cast pearles before Swine and give holy things to Dogs nor be partakers of other mens sins that we ought to obey them that rule over us c. As if at other times when a long corrupt Church is not to be reformed we need not nor are obliged to do any of these things Diogenes seeing a roving Archer ran to stand at the mark as the safest place so surely all the Apologists shafts are shot so extremely wide that I may willingly chuse to keep my self at this mark which they set up for the state of their question and yet never fear to be hurt with any of their arrowes Concerning examination the paper did never absolutely oppose it as precedanous to this Ordinance as they suggest I might say to the Apologists as St. Augustine did to Cresconius Lege prius diligenter contra quod scribis aut intellige quae dicuntur aut noli quod intelligis vertere in aliud for the very first inspection into the paper will cleare it of that charge it is denyed to be necessary that all be examined but it is affirmed of some viz. such of whom there is a violent suspicion that they are ignorant that it is meet they should be examined and these propositions carry neither Diagonall nor interpretative contradiction Though they have not yet prompted us with the least Jota of Scripture that might enforce this examination preparatory and dispositive to the Sacrament nor helped us to the smallest colour of reason to evince it to be more requisite in order to the Sacrament than other Ordinances yet we shall here tell them First that wee doe not so much question the conveniency of examining as the necessity thereof Durum est quod necesse est said Quintilian As love is the sweetning of labour and ubi amor est non est labor sed sapor so necessity is the imbittering of all undertakings like the Salamander which if laid to the root of a tree it never flourisheth or prospers Quod cogitur altera mors est As the Colossus at Tarentum might be moved with a finger but not at all stirred if one set his whole force to it so many may be facil to goe that are impatient to be driven and lesse cheerfully chuse to doe that which they cannot chuse It is a memorable Story which Cardan tells us of him in Millaine who having in sixty yeers been never without the Walls yet when the Duke hearing thereof sent him peremptory command never to goe out of the Gates during life he that before had no inclination to doe so yet soone dyed with greefe to be denyed the liberty of doing it Because therefore we would not be brought under a yoke or into bondage of any thing we strive to stand fast in that liberty wherein we thinke God and the gifts which he hath given us have set us free 2. We doe not altogether dispute whether they may call men to examination as whether it be so necessary ratione medii so as that if they will not come under it they have power for that cause onely to keep them from the Sacrament Lo. Verulam We shall say of this matter as a learned Man doth of Alchimy which intends to improve baser Metalls into Gold and then with one drop of that Elixir to transmute a whole Sea of Quicksilver into Gold That the foundation is more facible than the superstructure the antecedent more rationall than the consequent the proposition more plausible than the inference So in the first part they may pretend colour but in the second are blanke A Land-lord may require his Tenant to bring forth his Lease and shew his title but if he thinke himselfe not obliged to produce it it follows not that he may be thrust from his Tenement When Bellarmine arguing for Auricular confession and agitating the History of Nectarius Bellarm. de poenitent lib. 3. cap. 14. pag. 304 305. tom 6. Denison de auricul confess cap. 14. p. 92. objects that Adversarii non admittunt homines ad Eucharistiam nisi exploratos and for proofe thereof besides Melancthon cites Calvin Interim quin sistunt se oves pastori quoties sacram coenam participare volunt adeò non reclamo ut maximè velim hoc ubique observari Dr. Denison answers Illam consuetudinem
consist with the necessity of passing first the tryal of another before admission Small hopes of his self-examination that cannot bear the friendly tryal of his Minister it seems now without the Elders This is like as to say there is little hope he will prove a good or penitent Emperour that with Henry the fourth will not wait three days barefoot in the acerbity of Winter-weather at Pope Hildebrands gate to be restored to the Communion of the Church This self-examination is meant onely of secret sinnes and sincerity of graces which men cannot see and that their examination is for the satisfaction and honour of the Church and is of that which may be known and judged However they may confine or limit the examination here commanded yet no other besides this falls under the command and their limitation is grounded onely on their voluntary assertion which limits not our judgment and this self-examination is not primarily of sinne but faith whereof knowledge is an integral part Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith 2 Cor. 13.5 In 1 Cor. 11. Hom. 28. Tom. 4. p. 112. by which Text Chrysostome explains this and if they will not inquire concerning secret sinnes we forbid them not to judge of notorious and of the sincerity of grace if a self-examination be sufficient why require they a probation of the sound work of grace upon mens hearts before they admit them As for the satisfaction and honour of the Church we have elsewhere taken them under disquisition it tends perhaps to swell them with honour and greatness non magnitudo sed tumor est but for the Church it cannot be for the honour thereof to have so many for ignorance or sinne uncapable of the Sacrament or to lye under such a suspicion as to need farther tryal before they are admitted They ask Whether a godly communicant be bound to no other duty then is particularly exprest in this Scripture and they hope prayer and other duties may be regarded and practised being warranted else-where though not here mentioned How they still claspe their favourite Paralogisme For first though it is one thing to say no other duty is necessary but self-examination another that no other examination is necessary beside that of a mans self Yet secondly although self-examination have several parts and divers adjuncts which we shall not frigidly say may but must be regarded and practised yet all need onely to be done in private with a mans self without others privity Homil. 28. in 1 Cor. 11. Tom. 4. p. 112. within thine own conscience none being present but God who seeth all things Enter thou into judgment saith Chrysostome the Apostle non publicum faciens judicium sine teste argumentum as he elsewhere hath it Among those Concomitants prayer which is Sal omnium officiornm is one and this is cultus naturalâ—s non institutus and spreads it self and is ingredient or united to all duties as Mercury is joyned to all Mettals being to them as Parmenio was to Alexander without whom he could do nothing and like Themistocles in the honour of the battel of Salamine in all account the Second whoever be the first but if they think that in the recital of the institution and rules for the celebration and receiving of the Sacrament in the Evangelists and St. Paul there is no command or example for prayer to be used more than for examination by others they might easily have adverted that Christ cujus exemplum pro imperio est and who is that Elen or lapis funiculi mensorum as the Chaldee reades that of Gen. 49.24 because his example is to be the measure of our actions did begin with blessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Matthew and Mark benedicere est bene precari as the Hebrew Beracha Benedictio is derived from barac precatus est benedictio panis calicis est invocatio divinae beneficientiae super illa as Jansenius and the sanctifying thereof to that spiritual end and use whereunto they were designed and with giving of thanks In 1 Cor. 10.16 p. 306. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Luke and Paul which also Matthew and Mark mention at the taking of the Cup as indeed both blessing and giving of thanks are signified by the same Syriac word Non quòd eadem sed quòd conjuncta tanquam ejusdem orationis partes seu membra quidem ex quorum utrolibet Synecdochicè totum possit intelligi nec non alterum ex altero as Estius And giving of thanks is a subjective if not integral part of prayer In Matth. 26 Homil. 83. Tom. 2. p. 174. and from thence the whole action is denominated the Eucharist and Christ saith Chrysostome gave thanks to instruct us how we should celebrate this mystery They yeeld some Fathers and others gave the same gloss of those words as the Paper doth not in that sence which seems to smack of the Rhemists who tell us Rhem. Testam p. 433. that every one must assure himself that if any thing in the Scripture sound to him as contrary to their which they style the Catholique doctrine he faileth of the right sense but if I had prompted or dictated to those Authors they could not have written more clearly to my sense or more expresly for my purpose They do not think men onely prohibited to busie themselves about others neglecting of their own condition or forbidden to rest upon other mens opinions of them having learn'd the knack it seems which the Belgick Expurgatory Index prescribes when any of the Fathers is opposed in disputation to excuse and extenuate it and seign some convenient sense as if this were all which they collect from the Text. St. Augustine upon another occasion tells us that Curiosum genus hominum ad cognoscendam vitam alienam is always desidiosum ad corigendam suam yet however a curious busying of themselves about others whether they neglect their own condition or no is culpable and the reproof thereof may perchance hit with them for curiosity is one ingredient though I fear ambition be the basis in this composition and a considence of themselves ill grounded on others flatteries is no more peccant than a distrust and suspicion of others resulting from their own malignant or arrogant censoriousness but the Authors cited doe in terms tell us that St. Paul whom we must recognize to give precepts concerning right and holy communicating commands onely self-examination injoyns no one to examine another no not the Priest or Minister but prescribes the sciutiny to be private and without witnesses not publick And whereas they tell us that Chrysostome speaks onely of private examination which should be secret but that which is for information and satisfaction of the Church should be with witnesses Sure they found this in the glosse of Orleance which corrupts the Text for Chrysostome sayes that no other but examination without witnesses is prescribed and then for them to inferre that
shine that walk in it like the bright light of the Sunne which gilds all his spots and makes them invisible which some by their Prospectives discern in the body thereof What farther rise it may have or progression make we cannot certainly fore-tell but may solicitously fear since men of these principles are like the Crocodile which never ceaseth growing while he lives so doe they still increase in new singularities and humours and pretended discoveries yet I hope they will also be as sagacious as the Crocodiles of Nilus who never hatch any thing but they lay it without danger of being hurt by the rising flood yet in the interim an ordinary judgment may easily discover that a Fortress founded in the Conscience and raised on the advantage ground to command our reputation may keep all the parts adjacent in subjection and bring them under contribution And seeing Priam at this age was not unhappy and confession it self in so short time had neither so enlarged her phylacteries or out-grown her girdles which was punish'd with death among the Gaules as this probation hath done therefore we fear the Year when the Spring is so nipping and it is more like to be a sharp Thorn that pricks so soon And since we see that not onely by an extraordinary power as in the time of Elias but as Fromundus tells us by natural course a small Cloud may soon over-cast our Heaven and of a small Seed as Mustard a Tree may spring up wherein the losty and high soaring Birds may build their Nests We may be excused if we cannot make light of this cloud with a nubecula est citò transibit as Athanasius of Julian and if with the Ant we bite the seeds that they grow not However they may seriously and plausibly talk to us here of reformation and satisfaction and honour of the Church and elsewhere of the smallness of the thing required yet Timeo Danaos dona ferentes Or perhaps rather petentes We remember what the shepherd in Aesop said who beholding the smoothness and tranquility of the Seas after a former Tempest which enforced him to cast all his Dates over-board which he had sold his Flock to buy and adventure in the way of Merchandize Palmarum fructus concupiscit opinor ac tranquilitatem propterea praese fert and we cannot be so simple as they say the African Dabath is who is so charmed with Musick sweetly sounding in his Ears that he the whiles suffers his feet to be fettered DIATRIBE SECT IV. No pre-examination in the ancient Church save of Catechumeni Sending the Eucharist to Persons absent and Strangers The institution and abolishment of Confession Liberty to approach the Lords Table upon self-examination Whom the ancient Church excluded from the Eucharist The judgment of the Fathers Casuists and Schoolmen concerning those that are to be admitted and to be debarred To partake was anciently commanded as a common Duty The omission reprehended the common right asserted HAving now heard the Nightingale her self to sing perchance all will not be of Agesilaus his humour and refuse to hear any that imitate her voyce having therefore examined the Authorities of Scripture let us survay the judgment of the Fathers and practice of the Primitive Church which cannot but elucidate and confirm our sense and interpretation of Scripture for as Plato said Majores nostri propiores fuere progeniei deorum so the ancient Church stood neerer the light being neerer the Sunne of truth and his twelve signes which signified and shewed forth his Gospel and through which he moved round about the world In these Primitive Times I finde that mutual reconciliations and in the African Churches Vigils or watchings in Prayers and in Chrysostome's time Fastings and sometimes and in some places the publick renouncing of some particular Heresies were antecedent to the Synaxis but I meet with no Records of any command or example of previous probations as necessary save for Catechumen's The Eucharist was then often sent to persons absent Justin M. Euseb ex Iraeneo centur Magdeb. cent 2. p. 85. it was given to strangers coming to Rome as a pledge or Symbol of their Communion and consent in the same Faith where was no probability or surely no evidence of precedent probation When the Church that saw the benefit of publike Confessions for publick Offences redounded as well to the subduing of the stubborness of their hard hearts and the improving of their deeper humiliation as to their raising up again by those sensible comforts which they received by the publick prayers of the Church and use of the keyes some men reflecting hereupon and finding their own Consciences smarting for like offences which being secretly carried were not obnoxious to the censures of the Church to the end they might obtain the like consolation and quiet of minde did voluntarily submit themselves to the Churches discipline herein and underwent the burden of publick confession and penance And to the end this publication of secret offences might be performed in the best way and discreetest manner some prudent Minister was first acquainted therewith by whose direction the Delinquent might understand what sins were fit to be brought to the publike notice of the Church and in what manner the pennance was to be performed by them At first it was left free to the penitent to chuse his Ghostly Father but at length by general consent of the Bishops it was ordained that in every Church one discreet Minister should be appointed to receive Confessions untill at length in the time of Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople who dyed A.D. 401. upon occasion of the infamy drawn upon the Clergy by the confession of a Gentlewoman Socrates hist l. 5. c. 19. p. 349. defiled by a Deacon in that City it was thought fit it should be abolished and liberty should be given to every man upon the private examination of his own conscience to resort to the Holy Communion which doubtless occasioned Chrysostome the Successor of Nectarius to make those deliveries of himself which have been formerly mentioned The result of those premises is this That the ancient Church sometime thought it requisite that confession of sinnes should precede the Communion which at length also was laid aside but without any other examination verbal or real of all Communicants But seeing Faith and Repentance are as necessary as knowledge to worthy receiving and as principal a part of that whereof every one ought to make examination of himself or others are to make of him I wish it might be advisedly perpended whether there be not as great reason to have auricular confession in some rectified and qualified manner and to impose it as necessary in order to the communion as to introduce their particular examination as a duty so necessary especially since the Lutherans assert and practise it upon Homogeneal or like principles as preparatory and antecedent to the Sacrament contra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nonnullorum Calvinianorum Baldwin
cas consci l. 4. c. 10. c. 2. l. c. 12. c. 18. as they speak although they doe it not for the manner with obligation to the particular enumeration of all sinnes nor for the matter with any absolute necessity of doing it and therefore Luther used to say that he sometime communicated without confession to shew it was not necessary and other times confessed himself for the comfort of absolution and the Church of Rome also bottoms her rigid practice carnificinam animarum as their own Cassander calls it upon the same grounds that these men do their probation because say they It is the duty of the Priest to repell the unworthy and admit the worthy which is best done upon the Penitents estate manifested in confession Valentia Tom. 4. disp 6. q. 8. punct 3. p. 931. and Time the Mother of Truth may discover whether these principles be not some previous dispositions to the generation of such a practice of confession and that as necessary In the ancient Church were excluded from the Communion the Catechumeni energumeni persons excommunicate and Penitents and such as lapsed into Heresie until they repented and that any other save under these notions and capacities were shut out and debarred the Monuments thereof in Ecclesiastick History have not fallen within my angust Horizon Homil. 3. ad Ephes c. 1. Tom. 4. p. 356. Hom. 50. Tom. 10. p. 115. de medicina poenitentiae super illum 1 Cor. 5. si qui frater nominatur Tom. 9. c. 3. p. 210. ad 4. senten distinct 9. in 3. Aquin. q. 50. art 6. Duran Biel Estius Cajetan Valentia Suarez Vasquez Nugnut Sylvius c. Biel in 4. distinct 9. q. 2. Lessius de justit jure l. 2. c. 16. dub 4. S. 55. p. 158. Baldwin l. 4. c. 9. cas 1. Ursin Catechis part 2. q. 81. p. 578. He that partakes not is a Penitent saith Chrysostome We can saith Augustine repell no man from the Communion although this prohibition be not yet mortal but medicinal but one that by his own conscience or the sentence of the Ecclesiastical or civil Judicatory shall be accused and convicted of some crime And in another place which Gratian cites under the name of Hilary but it is St. Augustines in his 118. Epistle Si peccata tanta non sint ut excommunicandus quisquam homo judicetur non se debet à quotidiana medicina Dominici corporis separare And the School if it have any regard left it doth generally hold as also doe the Casuists Baldwin Navar Lessius Filiacius c. and besides divers reasons they cite the authority of St. Augustine to fortifie their opinion That the Communion is not to be denyed to a secret sinner that is not notorious if he openly desire it lest he be thereby diffamed and lest the minister be as saith Biel Proditor criminis inferens poenam ante criminis probationem poenam publicam ob peccatum occultum and he is not a Casuist minorum gentium amongst his Partizans who tells us that aliquis in peccato occulto licèt jus petendi Eucharistiam non habet petendo peccat tamen habet jus ne à parocho infametur neither is it enough that the Minister know the offence Per scientiam privatam nisi etiam per publicam notoriam much less si rumor aliquam de iis su spicionem moverit nam si nondum sit apertè reus nec satis convictus aut confessus admittendus est ne tam pretioso animi sui thesauro per nos defraudetur saith a reformed Casuist and though as Lessius would have it it were indeed sinful in these to demand the Commun on yet notwithstanding it may not be righteous for the Minister to deny it them for they are two questions in the judgment of a grave Divine Qui debeant accedere Et qui debeant admitti ad coenam prior est angustior posterior latior generalior quia tantùm pii debent accedere sed non tantùm pii verùm etiam hypocritae nondum patefacti sunt ab Ecclesia admittendi In those first times they generally communicated daily which St. Augustine saith he neither approves nor reprehends afterward twice or thrice a week at length constantly on the Lords day as appears by Justins Apology and others of the Ancients but the fervour of devotion rebating it was ordained that generally every one pubertatem excessus which was about the 15. or 16. year should communicate thrice a year thus decreed Fabianus Bishop of Rome as also did the Agathon Councel This Decree is found under the name of the Apostles Canons being the tenth in common account and the ninth in Zonaras which though I am not ignorant are not rightly fathered upon them yet are ancient and not contemptible As many of the faithful as come into the Church and hear the Scripture and continue not out the prayers nor receive the Holy Communion let them be put from the Communion as men that work the breach of order and it is noted in the Margin upon the same Canons in old times all that were present did communicate and consonantly the Councel of Antioch decreed That all that come into the Church of God and hear the holy Scriptures and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Zonaras interprets upon pretext of reverence and humility Chamier the violation of religious order refuse the receiving of the Lords Sacrament let them be put from the Church and to like effect determines the Bracharen Councel Quid causae est De verbis Domini secundum Johan Serm. 2. saith St. Augustine ô Audientes ut mensam videatis ad epulas non accedatis In vain saith Chrysostome we stand at the Altar when none will participate c. If thou stand by and doe not communicate thou art wicked thou art shameless thou art impudent I would not onely have you to participate but to be worthy partakers thou wilt say I am unworthy to partake of the holy mysteries then art thou unworthy to be partaker of the prayers not onely by those things set before us Homil. 3. ad Ephes c. 1. Tom. 4. p. 356. but by Hymnes also doth the Holy Ghost descend you that are under penance depart c. He that partaketh not is a Penitent Why therefore saith he depart ye that cannot pray c Neither onely was the participation of the Eucharist injoyned as a common duty and the omission thereof complained of but the common right thereof asserted by the Ancients That which is the Lords they make proper to themselves In 1 Cor. 11. Homil. 27. Tom. 4. p. 110. In 1. ad Cor. c. 11. Tom. 8. p. 494. saith Chrysostome those things which are the Lords are not this servants and not that servants but common to all he permits it not to be the Lords that permits it not to be common to all It is not the Lords saith Hierom but mans when every one invades it as
publickly solemnized by the Church and therefore though they laid no abstract necessity in the observation nor holiness in the time yet they thought it had much of seasonableness and nothing of superstition which may be as palpable in not observing as in observing set-times for duties and it was decreed that at that time every one should communicate not to imply that it was sufficient to do it then onely but as Hospinian speaks of Zepherinus Hospinian hist Sacrament rei l. 2. p. 124. Cùm vix unquam eveniret ut simul omnes communicarent necesse verò erat ut qui permixti erant profanis idololatris externo aliquo simbolo fidem suam testarentur diem certum in anno ordinis politiae causâ statuit quo totus Christianorum populus fidei confessionem sumptione coenae Dominicae ederet onely these Antipodes to antiquity can endure no Communions at Easter of any time else of whom compared with the Ancients we may say as they do of the French and Spaniards That what the one is the other is not And perchance as Maldonat tells us That he approves an exposition though another of Augustine's be more probable onely because it most dissenteth from the interpretation of the Calvinists and Bellarmine saith That an opinion is the better welcome because the contrary thereof is embraced by the Protestants so they consultly declaim against the Sacrament at Easter because the ancient Church then used to celebrate it That the ancient Church decreed that all having passed puberty should communicate several times in a year checks their impeding the far greatest part from communicating once in many years Had the Ancients symbolized with them they might more aptly and properly have decreed that none should participate the Sacrament rather than that all should for the denomination is to be taken from the major part and among these men far more are repelled than admitted and one of an hundred is none in comparison and whereas they tell us They have also taken in some about fifteen or sixteen years old the age of puberty I must tell them that the thing which I directly and principally intended was that all were to communicate not at what age they were admitted but they contrary to Law let go the Principal and arreign the Accessary but from the admission at that age it may materially be observed that the term untill which they were excluded and from which they were admitted was their puberty not till upon triall they made demonstration of their sanctity Let them fix one eye on the ancient Church and cast the other on their Congregations and tell me if their admitting one of an hundred look with any suitableness to that of unicuique praesentium in Justin Martyr Distribuunt unicuique praesentium Justin Martyr Apol. 2. Unicuique populo permittunt partem ejus sumere Clemens Strom. l. 1. Theodor. in 1 Cor. 11. Panis ille quem universa ecclesia participat Maxent cit à Centur. Magd. cent 6. c. 4. p. 115. Cunctus populus Justin Apol. Hosp Hist rei Sacrament l. 2. p. 5. 52. Haymo in 1 Cor. 11. ut cit Cham. Casaubon Exer. cit 16. sect 31. p. 366. unicuique populo in Clement totus populus in Hierom and Augustin that omnes ex aequo in Theodoret that promiscua multitudo which out of Rhenanus tota multitudo which from Chemnicius we have formerly mentioned and that mixta frequentia multitudo hominum and si quibus collibuâ—sset which Hospinian speaks of to have participated in the greater and more solemn feasts and whether it be conformable to that precept and reason of Haymo Omnes communiter ex uno pane communicate quia illa oblatio unus panis est communis debet esse omnibus Whereupon Casaubon calls the Lord's Supper Publica fidelium omnium invitatio That all present at the Word were by decree to communicate they grant might well be except such as were under censure or obnoxious to it it was never intended to be decreed by them nor meant to be alleged by us but upon the known Hypothesis of not extending it to persons under a judicial censure but while they dilate the exception to such as are only obnoxious to censure that is in a sense suitable to their practice which else it self would be obnoxious such whom they shall judge unfit who repell so many whereof not one that I know was ever duly censured is a gloss of their own agreeable with no Text of ancient Discipline but the contrary is evident by the testimony of St. August Nos à communione quenquam prohibere non possumus nâ—si aut sponte confessum aut in aliquo judicio ecclesiastico vel seculari nominatum atque convictm De medicina poenitentiae super illud 1 Cor. 5. si quis frater c. Homil. 50. Mr. Bal. triall of the grounds of separation p. 188 189. I. 3. de celebrat missar p. 121. Augustine produced by the Paper which according to the caution given by that ancient Sophister at the encounter of an hard argument they take no notice of neither hath it any smack of justice or reason that any man should be judged obnoxious and thereupon be kept off by any other mans or ministers private knowledg but according to allegations and proofs of witnesses or evidence of fact The common good necessarily requiring that such publick actions of this nature should be regulated by a kinde of publick not private knowledg which once admitted into judicature wold soon fill the Church and State with a world of scandals injuries and inconveniences and liberty should be granted to wicked ministers to punish with this punishment whomsoever they please as a solid Divine disputeth more at large not onely according to the Doctrine of the Schoolmen and particularly out of Suarez but also of the Canonists The judgment of the former we shall presently produce for the later let him be their fore-man to speak for them who was second to none our learned Countreymnn Lynwood Imò saith he quilibet Christianus habet jus in perceptione Eucharistiae nist illud per peccatum mortale amittat undè cùm in facie Ecclesiae non constet talem amâ—sisse jus suum non debet ei in facie Ecclesiae denegari alià s daretur faculâ—as malis sacerdotibus pro suo libitu punire hac poena quos vellent And if the Minister should proceed to act upon his private knowledg or judgment he shall do what Christ himself did not and themselves say he ought not to have done in the case of Judas so as such a course is as much opposite to the practice of Christ as the judgment of the School and Canonists whose judgment is steered by his practice They next ask How agrees that Note upon the Margine of the Canons in old time all did communicate yea all that heard the word by the decree of the Council of Antioch Chamier tom 4. l. 7.
pertinac tom 2. p. 142. contra lit Petil. tom 9. p. 26. contra Crescon l. 3. c. 36. they suffer that for the good of truth which they hate for the good of equity saith Augustine And again Quaerendum est quis habeat charitatem invenies non esse nisi c. It is to be inquired who have charity and you shall finde none but those that love unity some likewise shall say In thy Name we have eaten and drunk and shall hear I know you not which eat his Body and drink his Bloud in the Sacrament and acknowledg not in the Gospel his members diffused through the whole world with whom therefore they shall not be reckoned in the day of judgment And in another place the Apostle saying Be not partaker of other mens sins Keep thy self chaste to shew saith he in what sort a man might communicate with other mens sins he adds Keep thy self chaste for he that keeps himself chaste communicates not with other mens fins although he communicate not their sins but the Sacraments of Christ which they receive to their judgment with them from whom he hath severed himself by keeping himself chaste There may be a common concourse to the material part of an act without concurrence in the formal neither can a Physical concurrence make partakers in a moral act there can be no such transite from one kinde of action to another both People and Minister concurre to the receiving not the unworthy receiving if thereof they are no causes to the act not to the ataxy or sinfulness thereof they cooperate not in the evil but permit it Contra epist Parmen tom 7. p. 11. as that which morally they cannot remedy Quod non placet non nocet qui seipsum custodit non communicat alienis peccatis saith St. Augustine for if in evil actions any man consents not to them the evil doer bears his own cause and his person saith he prejudiceth not another whom in consenting to an evil deed he had not his partner in the crime What is said of him that is born of God Non facit peccatum quia patitur potiùs is in some sort appliable to this purpose the People and the same may be said of the Pastor are physically active morally passive and neither give nor partake of the Sacrament to and with one unworthy but one that is undivided from the visible Church the notes whereof must agree to it as Proprium quarto modo omni soli semper whence if the Word and Sacraments are those notes as our Divines assert though Non quoad essentiam ejus internam certò necessariò declarandam tamem ad visibilem aliquem coetum designandum qui est Ecclesia particularis ex instituto Christi formata as learned Ames All then that are actually of the visible Church may challenge a right unto a free enjoyment of these Sacraments to the one by being born of Christian Parents to the other by being baptized and having a dogmatical faith which every intelligent person is presumed to have else there may be a part of the visible Church not authoritatively or judicially sequestred from the communion thereof which are not in a capacity of obtaining that which denotes the Church At no time can the Church pretend to or hope for perfection of degrees rarely to that of parts Jacob's Ladder had several degrees in it and all were not of one height or rising perplexed and complicated are those two Cities saith St. Augustine in this world and mix'd one with the other untill they are separated in the last judgment Exhortatio ad conc Eul. ep tom 2. p. 147. the Church being no homogeneous body constituted of singular parts The Floor hath in it Wheat and Chaff the Field Corn and Tares the Net good fish and bad and it is observable that at the Nuptial Banquet was one found without a Wedding-garment With those and other similitudes saith Augustine the Lord confirmeth the forbearance of his servants lest while good men may think themselves blamed for commixture with evil by humane and rash dissensions they destroy the little ones Contra Crescon l. 3. c. 35. or the little ones perish I keep the Church saith the same Father full both of wheat and Chaff I amend whom I can I tolerate whom I cannot I fly the Chaff lest I become the same thing but not the Floor lest I be nothing Let no man therefore saith he desert the Floor before his time Contra ep Parmen tom 1. p. 11. let him tolerate the Chaff in threshing suffer it in the Floor for he shall not have any thing to bear within the Barn he will come that hath his Fan and divide the good from the bad To forsake the assemblies because of the mixture and communion of hypocrites and evil men seems to be a kinde of negative Schism or Separation and a positive to gather and constitute a new Church and I would willingly know if it be not the renewing of the old Heresies and Schisms of Donatus Lucifer Contra Faust Manich. tom 6. p. 60. Novatus and Audim Whether it make not the Church of the called to be of no greater latitude than that of the Elect whereas many are called but few are chosen Cum paucis haereditatem Dei cum multis signacula ejus participanda saith Augustine and whether in time by degrees this singularity may not antiquate the Sacrament and make the use thereof wholly obsolete and bring men to be Seekers and like the Phenix In 1 ad Cor. c. 11. v. 26. p. 430. one alone in the kinde of their devotions and to that humour of the Swenckfeldian in Musculus that would never communicate because he could not in his judgment finde any Church sufficiently adorned to make a fit Spouse for Christ And as the better qualified people may not withdraw themselves from the Communion upon pretence of mixt Congregations and fear of prejudice by them so neither upon the like score may the Minister withhold the Sacrament from them or intermit the Administration thereof for can it be thought rational that the holy desire of a competent number should be unsatisfied because the greater part are not equally prepared and so well disposed to joyn with them Is not this to eradicate the Corn for the Tares sake whereas rather both should be suffered to grow together untill Harvest It was a Principle of wise Cato's It is better many receive Silver than a few Gold and can it be held just that none should have Silver because all cannot receive Gold or because the Leven cannot be throughly purged that therefore the Children must eat no Bread or because the Hedg of Discipline cannot be effecutally planted that the Field of the Church must ly altogether unmanured and must the Wheat receive no nourishment because the Tares stand in the same Field Shall a certain essential duty be neglected for an uncertain accidental evil
common sort as if common and unclean were still synonomous in relation to all subjects for though it may differ gradually from other separations yet magis minus non variant speciem especially surveigh that rich Armory which St. Augustine furnisht against the Donatists and try if most of his weapons may not be appositely and properly made use of in this present controversie against our Antagonists It were indeed a more humble zeale and better placed and more discreetly regulated for those Ministers to engage their endeavours to frame and constitute their several Towns and Parishes according to the way of Presbyterial Churches where they have a more warrantable call where their speciall work lies and where they receive their maintenance and to take heed to those Flocks whereof the holy Ghost hath made them over-seers rather than to be gathering and forming without obligation or warrant of new Churches out of Churches of such persons as by remoteness of place are not susceptible of any frequent communion together in the ministry of the word and have one pastor for the Word another for the Sacraments at least if any body can tell who is the Pasos of some of those Churches in which are so many Ministers that have severall pastorall charges elsewhere and some other of these in like manner gathered Churches who have stept farther and stand at greater distance in their separations have onely such Teachers as can be called Pastors no otherwise than the Idols of the Gentiles were called Godsn uncupatively or ironically or by antipbrasis so that by a Charientisme we may say of them as the Athenians did of Alexander If he will be a God let him passe for one And I would have those that are lawfully ordained Ministers abstracted from Selfe and Interest for pessimum veri affectus venenum sua cuique utilitas to consider with what right they can take tythes from them whom they will not own to be of their Church seeing officium beneficium sunt relata with what conscience they can exact the whole tyth as their due when they omit a great part of their duty And for such as are univocally and compleatly of the Independent way I would gladly know how it is coherent with their principles to receive tythes at all for to say they take them not immediatly while yet they doe by mediation of their Farmers and Agents is such a palpable imposture as the Capuchins gull the world with who may not touch with silver themselves but they have their boyes at hand to purse up all they can carch Lastly I shall hold it forth to the serious consideration of prudentiall and godly men whether this setting of the Sacraments in an elevation of purity and holinesse above the Word as a lower and higher story or sphear have not been the spring or source of those manifold schilmes and heresies which of late years have made the Church of God as an heap of sand without unity or communion and whether that opinion haue not been fomented by an ambition of pre-eminence of power in some men and singularity of holiness in others Episcopacy like a tree not bearing good fruit hath been howen down and cast into the fire but is it seasonable or â—uits it with prudence or is it of the Interest of religion in the ashes thereof to be like Archin edes drawing of lines and circles and figures of Church-government according to our severall models while the enemy is at the gates of our Syracuse or in a more proper Allegory like the factions of John and Simon and Eleazar to be at feude among our selves while the Romans have laid siege to and are like to surprize our Jerusalem to divide and break our Ranks when we should stand close and conjoyn our selves to withstand the impression and charges of our enemies To ravell more threads in the coat of Christ when it is more than time and need to stitch up the rents In these unstable and ensnaring and lapsing times to quench the smoaking Flax which being not tenderly cherished either will altogether expire or catch after strange fites and new lights to hazard the blasting of the blossoms of Aarous Rod with sharp and nipping censures at their first putting forth Hoc I thacus velit magno mercentur Atridae They are prudent principles and worthy of reflection Novum imperium inchoantibus utilis clementiae fama Potentiam cautis quam acrimoribus confiliis tutius haberi Remissius imperanti melius paretur Numa built a Temple for Faith and Peace under one roofe and Charity and Peace must have some Sacrifices if it be not with neglect of the Altars of indispensible truth lest we have daily more cause to exclaim passionatly with Nazianzen Loving Peace loving Peace loving Peace where didst thou leave us Some things also may be just in Ecelesia constituta which in constituenda are not fit It rendred a complacency to wise Solon to have given the Athenians Laws the best of those they would have received Excellentissima animdvertenti ne mediocria praestare quidem rubori oportet esse And he was a judicious Physician whose Maxim it was Frustra disputamus utrum satis tutuÌ„ sit remedium quod est unicuÌ„ The wisdom of God himselfe hath taught us That no man puts a piece of new Cloth into an old garment otherwise the rent is made worse nor puts new wine into old bottles else the bottles break and perish and the wine runneth out and no man having drunk old wine straight way desireth new for he saith the old is better Quid jugum vestrum super eos aggravatis quorum potius onera portare debetis saith Bernard and he was the greatest propagator of the faith and advancer of the truth that ever was who was made all things to all men that he might by all meanes save some Seraphins which have their name from love are an higher order in the Scholastick Hierarchy than Thrones Dominations Principalities Powers and Doves whose wings are anointed with sweet ointment the Emblem of love draw all others to the house as it is in St. Basil not onely Tacitus commends Agricola that rarissima moderatione maluit videri invenisse bonos quam fecisse but when St. Paul questioned Agrippa concerning his faith he anticipated his confession and answered for him And when the King acknowledged that he did but almost believe the Apostle by a Charientisme presumed to know that he believed That great Fither of men knew it was the best bait to catch soules to graâ—ulate our brethren in their weak beginnings and to pretend a considence they are such as we desire they should be to take hold of such as are coming forward and to draw them farther with signes of love and indulgence and to seem to hope well of them not to discourage or set them out of countenance or to distrust or disparage them ctiam fictilia vasa confringere domino soli concessum saith Cyprian
for scruples are there understood to be leviuscula argumenta fundamenta as Azorius and Filiu ius leves rationes as Balwin but we are not perswaded the reasons and arguments alleaged are of that kind Filiucius tract 21. c. 4. Sect. 175. p 11. Baldwin Cas cons l. 1. c. 10. p. 24. De Instit jure l. 2. c. 29. Dub. 2. Navar. Manual c 27. Sect 280. p. 1037. though by a Meiosis or Charientisme we stiled them so until they have better convinced us therof and scrupulus est tenuis suspicio mali circa rem bonam vel adiapheram saith Lessius and onely makes the conâ—cience assâ—nâ—ing and adhâ—ring to one part of the question lightly to recede and a little to doubt thereof but the judgements which we desired might be satisfied are rather more fully perswaded by other reasons and not a little by those not to assent or adhere to this way which seems evill though they affectionatly wish for some of their sakes that trace it that it were not so evill as upon these reasons it seems or may be suspected to be so as whereas Conscientia scrupulosa contra id quod judicat habet argumenta as Navar these arguments are rather contra id quod non judicat But whereas they say Scruples are mens doubts in their own way where sure they use the word Doubts as improperly and incuâ—iously in respâ—ct of the Theologicall sense as they suppose we do Scruples for a doubt and a scruple are different noâ—ions amongst Casuists we shal grant in Ames his words Scrupul messe formidinem animi circa suam praxim but we cannot yeeld that we used the notion in any other sense for that which by exâ—enuation we called Scruples â—ut we shall not from henceforth use so much indulgence and compliance among those that have not learned inter bonos bene agier are arguments which though opposed to â—he way of the Apologists yet make men more searfull and sollicitous to concurre and co-operate with them in that way and so are concerning their proper wayes and actings likewise But that you may see the Apologists are not unlike some fierce men Ames Cas Consc l. 1.6 p. 15. which they say will sight with their own madow and that they quarrell with an expression which is but the shadow or image of their own cast back your eyes but upon the close of the precedent Section and see if the word Scruple be not used by them in the like sense which they carp at here in us for expressly they say While we are scrupulous of others which necessantly inferres that scruples may be in their conception as well of other mens wayes and actings as of their own Yet for my part let them call them what they please Nihil apud me distat in verbo quod non distat in sensu as Ambrose I shall not strive in words to no purpose which is as Augustine interprets Non curare quomodo error veritate vincatur sed quomodo tua dictio dictioni praeseratur alterius for I have also learned from Plato Nos ditiores ad senectutem perventuros fi nomina neglexerimus and if they think I have been guilty of a misnomer and this Scruple which is but the third part of a grain can adde to their weight I shall readily put it into their Scales yet I doubt it will not much ponderate where any other thing is in the Ballance or discretion holds the Beam DIATRIBE SECT XVIII Rom. 14.1 10. discussed Whether they judg or despise their brethren Psa 15.4 vindicated No other qualifications required in order to communicating in a Church member having a Dogmaticall Faith but to be without scandall Whether they reject onely the wicked Whether their way render them not guilty of temerarious judgement Of judging the heart Of bearing infirmities of morall men THe first Quâ—re which the paper sprung from Rom. 14 1. 10. they think as light as the paper ludibrium venti easiâ—y blown away with the least wind of their breath But though we did not pretend to fetch those arguments from the Peripatum but rather from the Academy and brought them forth not as demonstrative but considerable for their probability and as arguments minorum gentium senatores pedarii yet how weak soever they may seem in the faith or beliefe of any we shall strive they may be received and will seek to fetch them off from doubtfull disputations They say The Apostles scope is far from the business in hand he speaks of eating herbs not the Sacrament and it is onely a not receiving the weak to doubtfull disputations But may not the same arrow that is shot to one scope or mark be aptly aimed and sent forth toward another If they have forgotten that the same principle is pregnant with many conclusions and by the vertue and officacie of the same middle term or probative medium may sundry conclusions be inferred or if they recognize not that natural notion and principle of discourse one of those two feet whereupon all syllogismes stand and move de omni nullo viz. quodcunque affirmatur aut negatur de toto genere affirmatur aut negatur etiam de parte de specie and therefore consequently any truth derived out of another truth must be therein contained or if they remember not that Canon in Divinity quod particulariter dictum est universaliter applicandum yet we must remind them that neither the Sacrament nor any preparation or trial in order thereunto is the scope or subject of those places of Scripture from whence they have laboured to draw and form all the arguments for defence of their Church way that one of 2 Cor. 11.27 onely excepted as without any further light held forth by us will be obvious to any that shall make inspection into the texts which in due place shall be considered We do not pretend that this precept of the Apostle doth directly or expressly command a receiving to the Sacrament yet according to Diodate and Hammond it enjoyning a receiving of the weak in faith to the Communion of the Church we opine that it consequently requires the reception to the Sacrament Church-fellowship chiefly consisting in and being described by a communion of Sacraments as hath been declared and Church-Communion being comprehensive of all other special acts and parts of common and publick Christian duties or privileges if that be prescribed to be afforded in general the other are so commanded as being included under and contained in that and we do propound that by force of this Canon it is clearly enjoyâ—ed that qui robustiores sunt operam impendant insirmis sublevandis qui magis profecerunt safferendis rudibus as Calvin theâ—e is câ—mmanded nolite ahjiâ—ere cujus nondum confirmata est fides as Gagnaeus qui nondum erant in fide satis instructi as Menocbius and Tirinus Fraterne agendum cum rudioribus caveantque ne eos a professione
fifth kind in him Quod tanto studio aliorum vitia suas virtutes enumeraverit non enim est tam ingeniosa subtelis humilitas nec aliorum vitia nec suas virtutes videt 4. Jansenius tells us it was the Pharisees fault to condemn him whose heart he knew not and in whom he might have adverted signes of penitence and amendment because he saw him enter the Temple with him and by externall gestures declaring his repentance and would not the Apologists have contracted the same guilt had they met the Publican in that place and posture And are they not still culpable of the same uncharitableness who in the former Section inveigh against those who having lately beheld a man in his sins yet if he cry guilty and say he will amend can next day believe a change in him and themselves profess to credit no conversion that is sudden Homil. de Davide Saule tom in p. 156. whereas though the Publican ad summam progressus erat malitiam yet notwithstanding simplici verbo omnem deposuit iniquitatem aâ—sqâ—e longa temporis mora saith Chrysostome and Jansenius to the glory of Gods mercy adds Quanta sit Dei benignitas qui tam brevi oratione támque parvâ poenitentiâ sâ—peratus mex pâ—niteniem in gratiam recepit They wish every Pharisee had hypocrisie written with a Sun-beam on his forchead and then many a worldling and polititian would be detected but since now fronti nulla fides there may be yet light enough to read Pharisaisme in the characters of some mens wayes and actions What is legible in mens hearts will not appeare till the Son of righteousnesse with the brightness of his coming manifest it to all the world in the interim they suspect hypocrisie visible in the hearts of most men or else what need their spectacles and perspectives of farther examinations and trials whereby to discover more then is obvious to the eye But as things written with Allom water are to be read onely when the paper is heated by the fire so the fire of trouble would give some light to forestall the beams of the Sun and we might then find some to be Pharisees Sichemites that are such onely for the advantage of the times who like the herba mimosa do send forth their blossoms but in the eye of the Sun shed them when he withdraws his light or like the Heliotrope which expands turns her self always towards the Sun closeth at his setting Perchance some that like the Eastern people worship the rising Sun would then like the Asrican Nations curse him when he scorcheth them and perhaps if by the motions of superior bodies their aspects should be changed hypocrisie would not only in some Polititians be written in Court-hand but in others in text-letters and with a running hand after the world as much as in the most When they sent forth their Sphynx they should have given us an Oedipus also I know not how to unriddle the close of this Section when they say Many like those in Esays time stand off from them as too holy By propriety of construction it should seem to be that they from whom is the standing off should be those that are thought to be too holy for holy should referre to that which went immediatly before and this seems more suitable to what followes that they yet blame them for standing off from these as Publicans but to carry analogy with those in Esay they which are too holy should be those that do stand off for those that thought themselves holier forbad the other to touch them And this I rather divine then judge to be their sense But who those are besides their brethren we have built a story higher upon the same foundations others being driven off from them as not holy enough I cannot divine by inspection into any other intralls indeed they are as much Publicanes to these as others are to them and therein is seriously considerable First the irradiations of justice Lex recta est cum quis patitur quae fecerit ipse as others are not permitted to sit with these Adenibezeks at table but to gather their meat under it so others requite them as they haue done 〈◊〉 and this was the case also of the Pharisee too for as he would not touch with the people of the earth so the Samaritan if he met the Pharisee saith Drusius cryes to him touch me not and if casually he had suffered a contact would dip himself under water for expiation And to the late Dippers the Apologists are also intangible viz. the Anabaptists as well as to perfect Independents their brethren yet they are a strange kind of brethren with whom they have no communion of Sacraments and those though not Anabaptists yet seeing they baptise none but the children of those of their own Church if others did not wash those children whom they leave in their blood when they grow up to a desire and capacity to be of their Churches they must before they admit them become Epibaptists and postbaptise though not rebaptise them Secondly as remarkable is the influence of Separtion which having broken the banks knowes no bounds Nec scit quà sit iter nec si sciat imperet illis Quoque eat aut ubi sit piceâ caligine tectus Nescit et arbitrio voluerum raptatur equorum And when there hath been a distillation by one part yet another thinks that extract to have some impurity and so resolves of a rectification as the Chymists term it and thus one separation growes out of another and such multiplied soparations of the parts are like in time to be the destruction of the whole the proceeding of all things from their principles being resembled to a Pyramis but the destruction of things obumbrated by an inverted Pyramis which by degrees lessening it self determines in a point and that in nothing Of whose making is the distance between them and others we hope we have formerly made it so cleer to every mans understanding that be it said as of him as in the Poet Arbitrium litis trajecit in omnes SECT XXI What was Diotrephes What his ambition Whether the Apologists exceed not the bounds of ministeriall power by bringing all under triall excluding and not for scandall and that so many and by common continaall practice Whether this check not with 1 Pet 5.3 Whether those they reject are scandalous themselves separated and left the Church behind them Of Ecclesiasticall power what it is and how far extensive The duty of Stewards It is Christs honour to have an universall Church 1. Their actings not commanded or warranted by Gods word 2. They act solely Of their Elders Of ruling Elders in generall not by divine right yet a prudent constitution requisite to be continued in some way The interest of the whole Church in Censures The Elders representatives of the Church Whether the ancient Church knew any such 3. They act arbitrarily Of
Church was invested with those excellent gifts and graces 1. Cor. 12.9 Rom. 12.6 which rendred them susceptible of a share in the regiment yet the feet are part iron and partly clay Mede Diatribe in locum p. 207. and the community of Christians are now too apt to be embased with the alloy of violent factions and carnall affections and so less capable of such undertakings that therefore Elders should be chosen as Representatives of the Church is a very prudentiall Institution And truly beyond that height I cannot derive their off-spring Chrysostom in 1. cpist ad Cor. c. 1. hom 3. tom 4. p. 59. for as for that Argument extracted from 1 Tim. 5.17 to prove them to be of divine right The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honor especially they that labour in the word and doctrine besides what hath been offered by the most learned Mede to enervate the force thereof it is clearly and fully defeated and profligated by that passage in Chrysostom Siquidem nuncsenioribus quidem qui inutiliores sunt hoc munus baptizandi tradimus verbum autem quod doceant senioribus hic enim labor sudor est quamobrem alibi inquit Qui bene praesunt Presbyteri duplici honore digni habeantur maxime qui laborant verbo doctrina whereby it is evident that in Chrysostomes time the Church supposed that text to imply two parts or duties of Presbyteriall offices but not two sorts of Presbyters neither did the Church know any such duplicity and there is very pregnant reasons in-laid in the context which will evince that this is spoken onely of such Elders as received stipends as an honorable maintenance from the Church which it is evident that Lay Elders now have not nor can it be â—asserted that they ever had For that doubie honor should he given them is confirmed from Scripture saying Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corn De subsidio victûs interpretantur veteres Pamel annot in Cypr. Epist 66. sect 10. p. 196. and The labourer is worthy of his hire Both which texts are applied in Scripture to prove a maintenance due to the Ministers of the word the one so interpreted 1 Cor. 9.9 the other produced Mat. 10.10 and therefore these Elders here mentioned can be no other than such as were to have maintenance which were onely Ministers of the word Therefore neither dare I to assert that in the way of the ancient Church any plain tracks may be discerned of such Elders formally in such a small definâ—e number and in office specially designed to such undertakings and actings The characters thereof are so obscure as not legible to the best eyes without a supply from imagination That which seems to me to carry the fairest species Blondel de jure tleb c. p. 37. is what Blundel cites out of the Epistle of Purpurius to his se low Bishop Sylvanus and Albaspinus mentions the like in his history of the Donâ—tists Adhibete conclericos seniores plebis Ecclesiasticos viros inquirant diligenter quae sunt istae dissentiones but it is not evident whether these were called Ecclesiasticall persons for their office or affection having animes saccrdotales or for their experience in Church affairs wherein occcasionally they had been interessed The Elders of Israel so often assembled were not all men in office specially seposited for the occasions whereabout they were convened and wherein they engaged Rom. Antiq. l. â— c. 5. Elders denoting the principall men for age wisdome and piety power and honor as Homer useth seniores for optimates and as Romulus called his great Counclll the Senate because saith Rosinus it was composed of such Qui per aetatem maximè superent genere praecellerent and as the old Saxons in this Nation intituled some Eldermen not say the Lawes of King Edward propter aetatem sed propter sapientiam dignitatem cùm quidem adolescentes essent jurispcriti tamen super hec experti And in ancient monuments of the Church when we read of Elders for the most part it is intended of Bishops or Ministers though by misprision some places have been construed otherwise and when we find Elders distinguished from those of the Clergy very often they signifie civill Magistrates as in the Council of Carthage holden Au. Dom. 503. de conveniendis per Magistratus Seniores locorum Donatistis Episcopis c. And in another Councell there Anno 407. Maurentio reo judices dari decrevit universas cunctarum provinciarum curatores magistratus ordinis viros nec non auctores procuratores vel seniores singularinm locorum c. So An. D. 458. A Basilio praefecto principales vel seniores urbium singularium quà m reliquorum corporum compelli jussit Majorianus Augustus And such acception the word hath in many Councels where Lay men assisted and subscribed under the notion of Seniores Verbo Aldermanuas p. 28. Selden titl hâ—nor fol p. 605. which is most abundantly verefied in those Synods held in this nation in the time of the Saxons as it is every where obvious in them as they are fet forth by Sir Henrie Spelman who also tells in his Glossary that Aldermen whose appeilation was derived from Seniores did signifie principes provinciarum comites praefides senatores tribunos generali nomine so that where it is read Matth. 20.25 Principes gen ium dominantur suis the Saxon renders it Aldcrmanni dominantur as Mr. Selden likewise shews that Priâ—cipes Judae Psal 68.27 are translated Aâ—dermanni Juda as the Emperour Charles the Bald and Lewis the second are either of them in ancient monuments called Senior and from that appellation is Grand Seigneur among the Turkes and Shaughscâ—h c among the Persians originally deduced Yet neverthelesse ut jam sunt res humanae the same prudent reason which introduced is of force still to keep up the continuance of those ruling Elders and there wants not sound reason to perswade that they should be more than two to assist and concurre with the Minister that more safely so great a trust may be deposited with them and that there may be more health in the multitude of such Councellors unlesse possibly there should be some design to have them so few that the Minister might more easily have an influence upon them and with more facâ—â—iâ—y govern them or carry the more considerable weight in the counter-scale against them and if he can make one of the two to be one with him they two may be all in all Besides seeing they are Representatives of the People no man that hath not forfeited or enslaved his reason but will judge it most rational that they should be onely and freely chosen by them whom they represent without any interposition or Insinuation of the Minister Cujus nutus pro imperio est who it he do not immediately chuse the Elders yet mediately he useth to do it and
actually to be baptized but when the parents are clearly â—ut off from all actual outward communion even those qui internam retinent exclusi communionis signo externo Junius in conâ—ro 7. Bell. l. 3. c. 6. actu usu though they have a right the use is provisionally taken away they are cut off materially excommunicatione signi secundum quid ordinata though not formaliter and absolutely by the definite sentence of God secundum ordinem ab hominibus non secundum finem consilio Dei Let him be to thee an Heathen to thee modum externum homini praesâ—ribens etsi internam formam sibi veritati reservans so as though excommunication shut not out from the mystical Church nor clean from the visible yet it doth exclude from fellowship with the visible in holy duties and privileges and therefore when this should be the case of the parents it is very questionable whether the Child should not be in the same condition with them for the right and interest which the Child hath unto the privileges of external communion are rooted in the parents and are traducted from them and that also in the immediate parents Eccles pol. l. 3. p. 87. for else as Mr. Hooker observeth many Children of Turks and Pagans might have right to Baptisme whose mediate parents from whom after some descents they issued were Christians And though not sins yet the punishments aswel as privileges are traductive as in Attainders And seeing they are rules of the Law the one delivered by Ulpian Nemo plus juris ad alium transferre potest quà m ipse haberet and another by Paulus Non debeo melioris conditionis esse quà m auctor meus a quo jus in mo transit wherewith also the rules of Logick and Philosophy are consonant nihil dat quod non habet therefore unlesse one of the parents were a visible Church-member for in that case the matter would have some analogy with that mentioned 1 Cor. 7.14 it may well be disputed that if the parents be actually excluded from the act and use of Ecclesiastical Communion Godwin Moses and Aaron l. 5. c. 2. p. 223. the Child also should be actually suspended from the privileges thereof for if they be as heathens sure the Children of heathens have no right to Baptisme and among the Jewes from whose patterne some would extract more reverence to Church Censures the male Children of those that were but under Niddui were not circumcised Yet I am not ignorant that the ancient Church brought Infants to baptisme August Epist 23. Chamiertom 4. l. 5. c. 15. Sect 2. which had been cruelly exposed by their parents unknown as also à dominis servuli offeruntur which the French Churches have justified by a Canon before remembred but as it was to be presumed that those found within the pale of the Church were begotten of Christians so the susceptors and sponsors undertook and engaged for their education in the faith were their parents as it were by adoption as the master was a father to his family And I shall confesse that in this question concerning the baptizing of the Children of persons excommunicate there is no little reason and much authority in that scale which propends to the affirmative but as the case seldome comes to be discussed seeing it rarely happens that both parents stand under such Censure so for my part who desire to carry more conformity to the Spartan in quibus fidit vix aggrediens than to the Athenian audax supra vires I shall onely give in a special verdict and leave the case to be argued by more learned judges for if I therein go beyond a sceptick yet I advance not further than an Academick and in this Academy I had rather proceed than determine But in all these velitations against their dear brethren surely the Apologists have been pii inimici they have not drawn much blood non metuo ne doleat quòd tu ferias they have onely faced the enemy and given a pop or two and raised a smoak and then retreated without charging through or engaging any close fight and indeed have resembled Caligula who when he should have cut the deep to the conquest of Britain sounded his trumpets and gathered a few cockle shells on the shore and sent them abroad as the spoiles of the Country SECT XXV Their great abuse and distortion of Scripture With what a train of consequences their arguments are farre fetcht They are borrowed from the Donatists Papists Brownists Independents None of them conclude the question as themselves have stated it The argument raised from 1 Cor. 14 40. examined Whether it be a glorious and comfortable practice that none approach the Lords Table save holy persons Whether their way be warranted by the Lawes The moderating of Censures Whether their way have like ground with the ancient discipline in receiving in Penitents Whether there be order and decency in mâ—xt Communions The lesser good to be omitted to acquire the greater The confusion and disorder of their way REs venit ad triarios This is their third head and their capital fortresse viz. their pretended Scripture proofes for pro divisione discessione non solum loquuntur ips sed etiam divinos libros loqui persuadent as Augustine but to this head which speaks Scripturas sine sensu as Hierom hath it we may justly apply the motto which he set under the head whereby he represented the world Capuâ— hellebore dignum for it is stuft with such wanton fancies and erroneous wild notions that Nescio an Antyciram ratio sibi destinet omnem First They declaime much against polluting and prophaning of the Sacrament but I wish they had had a more religious care not to have polluted and prophaned holy Scripture by such a lewd and abusive misapplication thereof so as to make us ashamed and abashed henceforth from upbraiding the Papists with calling the sacred Scripture a nose of wax a leaden rule a delphick sword a shooe fit for every foot c. when those that pretend to be the great reformers among us are so guilty of that vitiosissimum dicendi genus as Hierom calls it De invenâ—or rer l. 4. c. 9. depravare sententias in voluntatem suam Scripturam trahere repugnantem and as Pâ—lidor Virgil speaks by occasion of a misinterpretation of Hostiensis detorquent sacras literas quo volunt ac sutores sordidas solent dentibus extendere pelles for I do sadly profess to think that scarce in that great Martyrologue of Scripture the Popes Decretals shall you find it put to much more torture or set upon a more violent rack then sometimes you may see it here in this new body of Extravagants 〈◊〉 so that an equal and unprejudiced Reader will be facil to imagine that upon some other motive they first pitcht upon the opinion and then set their wits to work to find out arguments the best they could to maintaine it and so
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
from an unnecessary pleasing and intimate familiarity There are many persons saith Mr. Baxter Saints everlasting rest part 4. p. 106. De Eccles p. 316. whom we may not avoid or excommunicate out of the Church no nor out of our private society judicially or by way of penalty to them whom yet we must exclude from our too much familiarity in way of prudence for preservation of our selves And Camero reminds us of another case also Saepenumero accidit ut illius consortio privatim abstinendum sit cujus consortio in communione sacra non erit abstinendum nempe nos eorum fratris pecatorum aliquando conscii sumus quorum Ec lesia nâ—n est conscia But they finally deny the hypothesis that hereby is understood familiar and intimate fellowship and they will not swallow that opinion or have company with those of this judgement and they reason for sacramental eating 1. From the Context the whole Chapter concerns Church Censures and begins and ends therewith Suppose it did so yet it is not consequent that the eating forbidden can be only eating at the Lords Table it may rather be a prohibition of convict and commerce which is a part or appendage of excommunication And though that also be a Church censure yet seeing so great a part of the Chapter concerns the delivering over the incestuous person to Satan if but one thing can be the subject of the Chapter then sacramental eating is not treated of formally and immediately as sacramental eating there being a great disparity between that and tradition to Satan 2. How usual is it with the Apostle especially in the Epistles to the Romars and the Hebrews to enter upon a special subject and then by a real kind of hyperbaton to transfer his discourse to some other that occasionally emergeth and afterward to revert to his first matter so oftentimes chequering his writings and especially when there is some affinity between the things though not the same And to abridge and confirm the research we may find an instance hereof in the 7. verse of this Chapter where we have shewed that from a particular occasion he passeth to a general exhortation c. This saith Paraeus is illatio generalis ex superiori hortatio in thefi ad puritatem vitae And Estius affirms auforte malum ex vobis ipsis diversum esse ab ea quae paulò ante dixerat Si quis c. cum ejusmodi nec cibum sumere and the abandoning the conversation of some offending brethren was prescribed by the Apostle and may be by the Church though they judge it not expedient to cast them out of communion which makes it cohaerent and apposite enough to follow what have I to do to judge them that are without 2. They pretend to prove it by the text 1. If meant of common bread they may not then dine or sup at an Ordinary if an ungodly man be present and this would be a snare to mens consciences No more sure than that prohibition 2 Joh. 10. not to salute an heretick neither did the ancient Councels intend to twist snares out of their Canons when they decreed not only That none should take meat or partake of banquets with Jewes as did the Councel of Eliberis Elib can 50. Constant 6. can 11. Matiscon can 15. Ilerdens can 14. 4. Estius in 1 Cor. 11.27 Grotius annot in Joh. 13.18 Alii in loc Alexand Dier Gen. l. 3. c 5. L. Gyrald Pythago symb tom 2. p. 479. Mr. Balls tryal of grounds tending to separate c. 20. p. 200. De pastor c. 15. and the sixth Councel of Constantinople when reassembled by Justinian and also that of Matiscon but also not to eat with any persons rebaptized or new dipt as now the phrase is as did the Ilerden Councel and the same Synod forbidding to take meat with the incestuous according to the Apostles command declares they took not eatiag here for not eating common bread and not sacramental But we understand the words rather Tropically than literally and eating synechdochically or symbolically to signifie a familiar friendly society and indearment the Table being a symbol of friendship as Bullinger and Eplius among the ancients and a note of intimacy as Paraeus Etiam apud genies sacrum amicitiae signum saith Grotius and Alexander ab Alexandro instances in very many Nations whose leagues and covenants were concluded and ratified by the ceremony of eating together and Lilius Gyraldus inteprets that symbol of Pythagoras break no bread to intend break no friendship for saith he our of Jamblicus and Diogenes ad panem veteres amici coibant and the learned in the Hebrew tell us that in that language a Covenant is derived from a word that signifieth to cat which is also a token of love and friendship in phrase of Scripture adds Mr. Ball as Psa 41.9 not to partake of or to be shut from the Table being a sign of familiarity broken off and therefore those esserae hospitales which were the pledges of friendship gave those that had them a right to comestion and entertainment and fellows or associates had their name among the Latins from eating together Latina lingua sic dicti sodales quasi simul edales quia simul edunt saith Augustine but it they were retrenched from sitting at an Ordinary with wicked men yet they need not borrow Novatus they might have said Acesius the Novatian his Ladder to go to heaven alone for the way to heaven doth not lye by an Ordinary but the Lords Table is in the way and there indeed they would take a ladder to go to heaven alone or else turn that table into a ladder whereby to mount up to some other height above others 3. He writes to the Church and therefore intends Church eating Quà m arguto faciunt verba diserta sono Not with-drawing off civil socieâ—y by particular persons in a private way Videte quà m multa dicunt non habendo quod dicant It seems then the Apostle writing this Epistle to the Church nothing thereof concerned any particular persons distributively but the whole Church collectively or else virtually viz. the Elders and in the 7. and 8. verses of this very Chapter when he dehorteth them from malice and wickedness and perswades them to sincerity and truth this duty hath no reference to or concernment with particular persons by them to be done privately but only belongeth to the Church in publick 4 The nature of the recited sins shewes he intends scandals calling for Discipline and comming under like censure with incest Whether covetousness not pregnant with or waited on by other sins for explering the desires thereof may merit either excommunication the greater or the lesser I shal not now discuss with any Arguments ad rem but I shall propound one ad hominem that their Prolocutor hath publickly determined that worldliness which is consignificant with covetousness is one of the spots of Gods children and therefore cannot of it self
truth which are the proper passions of those Dogges and Swine that are here described but from being convicted of any such notorious crimes whereby the Church might be scandalized For secondly though we should surrender what they cannot win by force That the Sacrament not onely falls within the notion of those holy things and pearls but was properly and primarily understood thereby yet it is farther questionable who those Dogges and Swine are and what constitutes and denominates them such The main current of Interpreters runs strongly this way and not to be withstood that hereby are intended such as blaspheme the truth which is set forth by trampling it under feet and those that persecute it signified by renting them that propound it Chamier tom 1 l. 10. c. 8. caetcri in locum p. 187. Bullinger advers Anabapt l. 6. c. 9 p. 229. Let Paraeus be as Plato in hearing whom you hear all the rest he speaketh saith he of the professed obstinate enemies of the Gospel who being convinced of the truth therof yet cease not either to blaspheme or violently persecute the same and the same way run Augustine Chamier Bullinger Perkins Diodate Grotius the English Annotations Jansenius Maldonate Barradius Estius who adds in his Annotations Huic praecepto obtemperavit Paulus Apostolus quando Judaeos videns insua perfidia obstinatos reliquit eos transivit ad genies Art 13. Such obstinate professed and impure enemies of the Gospel and the Ministers thereof persecuting them for their message as the late English Annotations decipher them we cannot but consent Idem omnes simul ardor babet should be kept not onely from the the Sacrament but out of the Church at least if they would yet be willing to enter and we suppose it imports them in duty to have no Doggs or Swine among their Flock as well as it concerns them to have none at the Lords Table and that therefore and if it were possible there could be any such within it which Vixisset cauis immundus vel amica luto sus that they ought to be cast out of the Church which like the aire of Arakia is too sweet to nourish any such swine and which can give no admission to Dogges which were not suffered to enter heathen Temples as Minerva's at Athens and Diana's at Delos nor to be toucht by the Flamen Dialis at Rome But as Junius applies the text to those that voluntariè certáque malitiâ sunt inimici veritatis Eirenic part 1. p. 727. tom 1 so he gives us two cautions Nè tomere judicium feramus de ullo homine quòd certâ maltâ—iâ deliberatâ oppugnet Deum verit tem Ecclesiam ejus alâ—â—era est si judieandum est ne ex frustu uno aut altero putemus arbores illas malas cegnoscere sed potius ex fructibus plurimis gravissimi diseamus cognoscere quod satis est ad cautionem nostram non autem ad istorum condemnationem But then next 1. Are those whom they admit not to the Sacrament to be stigmatized with those odious attributes as being culpable of those desperate affections and actions Do they reproachfully despise and revile the Sacrament or not rather reverently prize it and humbly desire it as pretious and the worst of them hath some devotion toward it qui possunt aliquam devotionem hujus sacramenti habere non est iis denegandum in the judgment of Aquinas Part 3. q. 80. art 9. Is there any danger of their doing mischief to those that should exhibit it would they not rather thank and honour them for it and is it not the rise of the quarrel because they cannot have it and the rent is made for not distributing thereof and they that should give they turn away and rent those that would gladly receave we may therfore assume what Whitaker saith to the Papists who allege this text to justifie their with-drawing the Scriptures from the people Controver 1. q. 2. c. 17. p. 308. as the Apologists do for withholding the Sacrament Certè populus parum illis se debere putet de quo tam abjectè parum honorificè sentiunt ut eos canum porcorum loco habeant Secondly is not this as odious a dishonour to the Churches of God as a disparagement to particular persons that they should be made as kennels or hogsties by having about ninety nine doggs or swine to one holy Christian How great a blasphemie is this saith the great Chamier to the Papists ubi supra upon the same occasion with Whitaker that whom God calls his sons any one should name doggs and swine to what end therefore do we believe the holy Catholick Church if the far greatest part thereof be doggs and swine We confess notwithstanding among Christians not a few there are which lead a life too much depraved but we deny any of them that are to be reckoned of the Church to be in the number of those that are here signified by doggs and swine although they live wickedly So he This will be indeed musick in Gath and a pleasant song in Askelon and if the Apologists and their brethren will not with some animals cover their excrements the Papists will find it out by the strong scent and cast it back in the face of our Church and of the dung that such black birds do drop they will make birdlime to catch and ensnare other birds But they plead that sin and contempt of Gods waies make them deggs the Scripture interpreting this expression to signifie men of a prophane life 2 Pet. 2.18 19 20 22. Prov â—6 â—1 The very inspection into the text may check their assertion for in that of Proverbs it is said that as a dogg returneth to his vomit so a fool returneth to his folly but may a man be denominated from every thing whereunto he may in any respect be assimilated or can a likeness secundum quid warrant an appellation simpliciter If so then as the Chymists fancy that there is nothing in the great world which is not represented in the little and there is really nothing within the clasp of the universe but man doth in some regard resemble it then as Adam once gave names to the creatures so now they might denominate man and man is all things and you may call him what you will That of Peter is but a rehearsal of that Proverb with an enlargement concerning the sow and if I should concede that here wicked men were called Doggs and Swine yet let them recognize what those wicked men were viz. Simon Magus and his Gnosticks the dreggs and fink of mankind Christians onely in name So Estius Justinian Hammond c. and baptized Pagans who had the name of Borborites from dung and durt saith Augustine they were so filthy and contaminate with impurities beyond all that ever the Sun discovered or darkness hid which are like a dead carcass fitter to be
but that they may examine of the sincerity of grace or soundness of conversion such a power God never gave nor can we suffer them to usurp As what have I to judge those that are without so to judge that which is within the Church judgeth onely of scandal not that which is secret in the heart Suspension is a penal act and therefore not to be inflicted but by judicial sentence upon evidence of crime nor for want of evidence of sound grace Every one as is the rule of the Casuists is to be esteemed good untill some manifest evil appear of him He that is a Church member hath a right to holy things to admit him to partake them it is enough not to know the contrary We need not seek positively to know his worthiness they must not set up their thrones of judgement in Gods peculiar Contra Epist Parmen l. 2. â— 6. Contra lit Petil l. c. 23. Coutra Douat post Coll. c. 4. the heart Had the ancient Church sensed or practised such a necessary duty Augustine needed not to have feared the eradication of the wheat with the tares upon a denial of communion of Sacraments with evil men for such a curious examination would have distinguisht one from the other and the one might be puld up and the other left standing and there would scarce have been place for those expresses Bonis malinon oberunt qui ignorantur and also quandoquidem malos in unitate catholica vel non noverant and likewise aut aliis benis non potuerit demonstrari for they and their condiâ—ion might well then have been detected and manifested The Apostle speaks of Ordination of Ministers wherein by not examining the persons to be ordained guilt is contracted and when done without proving as 1 Tim. 3.10 then it is sudden That the words are to be understood of laying on of hands in Ordination I confess hath better authority but they seem to have more reason who take it for imposition of hands in absolving of penitents Abbispin l. 2. obs 31. p. 400 obscr 32. p. 412. See Dr. Hammond Annot. as do Tertullian and Cyprian among the ancients to which sense the context before and after is more sutable and that part of the precept keep thy self pure is by some of this judgment thus paraphrased that by knowing what is committed by other men he be not corrupted or defiled and drawn into the like but remaine pure and undefiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to commit the sins not onely to be blamable for others guilt But let it be meant properly of Ordination If they could give us such another text administer not or admit not to the Lords Supper suddenly they would as Scaliger saith of Mamonides desinere nugari but as there is no such like precept so there is not like reason for the one or other or else the Apostle doubtless when he gave directions concerning the administration would have held it forth First There is no command generally obliging all intelligent Christians to take Orders Addit ad Aquinat 3. q. 36. butt 4. Nugnus ibid. there is to take eat do this Secondly No man hath such a claim to Orders but that it is not sufficient that the Ordainer knows not the contrary but he must positively know his worthiness but a Church member hath such a right to the seales of that faith which he professeth and to the notes of that Church wherein he is incorporated as to receive them unless he be publickly known to be unworthy the one requires special Charismataes the other onely common graces to entitle to the signs though special be requisite to obtain the things signified Thirdly Often the persons to be ordained are not known unto or familiarly acquainted with the Ordainer but the Pastor should be more conversant with his flock then to be ignorant of their condition Fourthly Filvicius Cas tract 9. c. 4. Sect 88. Part 1. dist 25. nullus ordinetur No grace is now usually given by Ordination to meliorate the persons but grace is conferred by the Sacrament adjumental to their amendment Fifthly Notwithstanding all this those that are notoriously worthy the Casuists say are not to be examined before Ordination and the glosse on Gratian tells us Testimonium populi aequivalet examinationi verum sufficit quod clericus ordinandus habeat famam perse per hoc etiam patet quod noti non sunt examinandi sed tantum ignoti but they exempt none though of known worthiness from examination before admission to communicate which shewes it is not their worthiness they seek to be assured of but to make sure of them Beside the prohibition here to partake of other mens sins in the judgment of Calvin and others is onely this Although others break forth into this rashnesse to ordain persons unworthy do not thou follow or have fellowship with them in such acts not those of the ordained but ordainers And whereas they alleage 1 Tim. 3.10 That ordination was not to be made without examining or proving we grant a proving was there required but it was a probation by long experience not by a personal examination as Chrysostom expounds it Multo jam tempore explorati as Bullinger Probatio constantis fidei vitae inculpatae as Estius Praesertim quod Diaconis etiam dispensatio thesaurorum Ec lesiae committeretur and a Lapide to the like effect Quorum virtus diu spectata probata so as this arrow may be shot back against them to demonstrate that knowledge and proof of men may be had without personall examination viz. by observing their coversation and that therefore it is but a paralogisme when they argue The worthy must be admitted and the unworthy excluded therefore all must be examined SECT XXXII 1 Pet. 3.15 Heb. 13.17 discussed What obedience is due to Ministers and what power they have VVE have formerly also defeated the force of their Arguments levied out of those Texts and we shall not actum agere Diatribe sect 3 since even the too frequent use of Cordials makes them lesse efficacious Concerning that of 1 Pet. 3.15 I have elswhere shewed that this is to be understood of a defence of the faith against despisers thereof or disputers against it or a confession thereof under persecution opposite to dissembling or as Grotius Grot. Annoâ— in locum of a preparedness causam reddere cur sitis Christiani Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habemus Phil. 1.17 2 Tim. 4.16 Acts 22.1 not so much to professe what as wherefore we believe as Tirinus also concurreth neither is it an answer subsequent unto or drawn forth by any probatory examination nor confined or contracted to a disposing men for the Sacrament nor any way respecting or appertaining thereunto it is so far from being to be done onely there as they obtrude it as that thereunto there is here no reference at all much