therefore while the Church wanted the favor of the Civil Magistrate had not power to inflict punishments upon men God was pleased to supply that defect this way and make Satan the common Lictor and executioner of punishment upon those whom gentler methods would not restrain and prevail upon These things I think are sufficient to the purpose I have spoken them to let men see how terrible the effects of Excommunication were in the times of the Gospel St. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Romans calls his sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Chrysostom in Hom. 15. in primam ad Corinthios 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the destruction of the flesh i. e. as was done to holy Job And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he might afflct him with some sore Ulcer or other Disease St. Ambrose lib. 10. de poenitentia inquiring how the Incestuous Corinthian was delivered to Satan answers thus Sicut Domin us in animam sancti Job non dedit potestatem sed in carnem ejus permisit ita hic traditur Satanae St. Hierome in cap. 5. ad Galatas Precepit eum tradi poenitentiae in interitum vexationem carnis per jejunia aegrotationes The Author of the Commentary upon the first to the Corinthians commonly though as some say falsely ascribed to St. Hierome upon cap. 4. ult hath these words Quali vigâ veniam ad vos c. Quali Petrus venit ad Ananiam Saphiram Paulus ad Magum And this expression The destruction of the flesh he renders by carnis angustias detrimenta membrorum And Pacian in Epist 3. ad Sempronium hath the same words Theodoret in locum c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cajetanus in locum Hinc apparet punitionem hanc fuisse venationem corporalem etiam usque ad mortem non tamen repentinam In which perhaps he may be mistaken and as to the Incestuous person certainly was yet herein he follows St. Augustine who lib. 6. de Sermone Domini in Montem seems to question whether this did not extend unto death Answerable to these you will find these following Learned persons as you have them in the large Criticks printed at London Vatablus in primam ad 1 Cor. 5.5 ut carne afflictus resipiscat Clarius in locum terminum prefigit satanae ut corpus tantum tangeret uti in Job factum erat Jacob. Capellus in locum who gives an instance of the like punishment and immediate seizure by Satan out of the Life of St. Ambrose written by Paulinus Grotius in locum Nempè ut per eum morbis vexetur To these may be added Aquinas in locum if we think he can add any moment to the judgment of those that we have named before him In the close of which I may add the Authority of our own Hammond whose Judgment is and will be valued as long as sound Learning flourisheth in the world and he in his Note E on 1 Cor. 5. contends for the reasonableness of this Exposition And because Calvins Authority may be of credit more than they all with some men I therefore produce him in the last place who both in his Exposition upon this place and in his Institutions too doth not deny these to have been the effects of Excommunication in the Apostles time only contends that that was not all that was intended in this expression as he chargeth St. Chrysostome and others though I do not see for what reason to have said was and that whatever evil consequences the Laws of our Nation have made appendant to it now are not so terrible as these were and consequently that there is not so much cause to cry out against this procedure with men as unchristian and contrary to the rules or practice of the Gospel and Apostles of Christ 2. And that this notion is true might further be proved from the testimony and judgment of men of great Authority and Credit in the Church of Christ both Ancient and Modern were there any need of it Such for instance are St. Augustine St. Chrysostome St. Hierom of old and such as Grotius Capellus Hamond and almost all the most Learned men of late who all unanimously contend that this was the sense of delivering up unto Satan and these the effects that usually followed Excommunication in the Primitive times while the Church was destitute of the protection of the Civil Magistrate and had not the power of making Laws externally to punish obstinate offenders The Learned Reader for his fuller satisfaction may at leisure consult the Quotations in the Margine And now after these things I do not well know what is wanting to our purpose unless it be to examine some Objections against this notion of delivering to Satan and to satisfie some scruples about it to which I shall address my self that I may leave every thing as plain as I can And there are three or four things that will require a particular consideration in order to this 1. And first it may be demanded Why are these effects of Excommunication now ceased there appears nothing of this nature now nor hath for a long time what 's the reason therefore if there were such things why we see nothing like them now To which Question an Answer may be given out of what was hinted but just before That these extraordinary effects lasted only till the Government of the Empire turned Christian Till then indeed it was necessary that the Church should have some such power to inforce Excommunication and render it terrible and effective to obstinate offenders But when the Governours and Civil power became Christian then they might use the Temporal Sword to back the Spiritual and inforce these Censures of the Church with external punishments and thereby do that which God did by this extraordinary means And therefore as when the Children of Israel of old came into the plentiful land of Canaan that Manna ceased by which they had been fed in a barren wilderness so when the Church was protected by the Civil power and the Laws of men could do that which an extraordinary providence had done to that time then God was pleased to withdraw the same and leave men to their own conduct when they were able to govern themselves For God was never so lavish and prodigal of doing Miracles as some men would make him As he never suffered a Miracle to be effected but upon some very great reason no more did he ever interpose or use an extraordinary power to effect that which the power of nature and second causes were sufficient for When Kings and Emperours therefore became nursing Fathers to the Church according to the ancient Prophesie made Laws for the Government and Protection of it and backed those Laws with Sanctions of grievous punishments made the interest of Religion their own and guarded the peace and order of the Church with the same vigilancie and care that they did their Kingdoms then there was no
benefit they compel them unto though it be never so irksome to them and spare not for their much crying just as Chirurgions and Physicians consult the good and not the ease and palate of their patients and forbear not the caustick or the sawe or the bittetest potion though perhaps the Patient must be bound in one case and be even constrained in the other It is just the same case here only so much the greater benefit by how much the spirit and it's Salvation is better than the body and if there be any to complain of eertainly 't is only our own selves 5. And that 's the fifth thing I proposed to consideration for all this is occasioned only by our own default and it is not very easie to say whether men be more condemnable for their wilful falling into such an evil or their complaining that means are used for their recovery It is imprudent to hurt and mischief themselves but it is much more to quarrel with the charity of those that would help them Would men be pleased to live so like Subjects as not to occasion any fear or jealousie to the Government and would they please to keep themselves in the Communion of the Church and a regular observance of the Services and Ministries of Religion they would never hear of any trouble nor need to complain of any force or violence against them But if they will be heaving at Government and will be factious and innovate in Religion the more easily and successfully to accomplish their other evil designs they must thank themselves if the edge of the Law be turned on them and if they be a little stricter held to their duty they must blame only their own wilful neglect and disregard of it In this case they have none to complain against but themselves for Authority if it have any regard to it self or any concern for them cannot do less than it doth without betraying it's own trust and casting off all concern for those that God hath given it the charge and care of 6. But sixthly there is another consideration to render mens complaints and murmurings against this procedure unjust and that is that they themselves have done the same thing or worse in the like or lesser cases Time was when any one that did not swear as fast as they would have them and count their Covenant Religious and Sacred should not only be Excommunicated but Out-law'd and put immediately from under the benefit and protection of Law And we have lately seen how forward these very persons that now complain have been to put Tests upon all others and to injoyn all in any Office or Place of trust to receive the Sacrament upon forfeiture of the Place and a great sum besides And I wish I could not say to the shame of some and their unanswerable reproach how readily they could receive it when their profit and interest invited them though they complain and grumble when it is made their duty and labour to scare others from it under the notion of Superstition and Idolatry Interest we may see will easily answer all Objections and be able to do more than all the best arguments in the world besides and were but the Sacrament now a Band and Cement of Union among themselves a confederating the more closely to carry on their own purposes or any way subservient to their design we should hear of no complaints nor invectives against any but those that refused so holy and saying an Ordinance This is the plain truth of the thing and if men be offended at it we cannot help it nor ought much to be concerned and therefore it is a stark shame for those to complain against the present proceedings of Authority who have gone before them in the same and much worse It is a hard thing for us to be judged by them who do themselves the very same thing 7. And lastly the complaining will be the more unreasonable when it is no injury at all to them upon their own principles nor doing any thing to them which they do not wilfully to themselves It is too evident what little respect these men bear to the Church and how little they value the Communion of it they separate themselves from it and avow a downright Schism against it and therefore what injury I pray can Excommunication be to such men It is they that anticipate Excommunication thrust themselves out of the Church and defie it and persist in plain contempt of it and what Authority doth is little else than barely declaring what they have done before And I am verily perswaded were it not for some consequences of it and some prejudice that might redound from it to their Temporal concern they would as little regard it as they do the Church deride it as brutum fulmen and no more dread it than men do fire painted upon a wall We that can hear men ridiculing the notion of a Church and laughing at all the discourses about Communion with it do very well know how little they value or think themselves hurt by being Excommunicated and turned out of that which they never desire to be of they that can so lowdly confront all Antiquity and in spight of all the Fathers of the Church and Maxims of the Apostles too teach Salvation to be attainable as well out of the Church as in it certainly can never think themselves injured by being cast out of it and all their Tragical complaints of Persecution in this are but artifice and hypocrisie Men may be driven indeed to that which they do not love but they are but compelled by that which they do not much dread or fear 2. The second thing proposed is to inquire into the nature and measures of that compulsion that the Laws and Precedents of the Gospel do warrant in this case and then to try whether the present proceedings of Authority against men may not be justified upon them This is a thing the more needful to be stated with heed and caution because the great Clamour is upon it And two things with great confidence are urged by men upon which they take upon them to censure the present proceedings of Authority as wholly contrary to the Doctrine and spirit of the Gospel 1. That it is not consonant to the Gospel to use any force at all to men in matters of Religion and that nothing but Papal usurpation and cruelty hath introduced the practice of it 2. That however if there be any footsteps of force and rigour then or that the Gospel mention any such thing yet that rigour was purely Spiritual Church-censures were her only Arms and Excommunication the only punishment that she did inflict but the Body and Estate and the external concerns of men were untouched But so say they these are not now did Authority content it self only to go thus far we should bear it and should have nothing to object against it but now mens civil interests are touched
THE CASE OF Compelling Men TO THE Holy Sacrament OF THE LORD'S SUPPER CONSIDERED And AUTHORITY Vindicated in it by the Rules of the Gospel from the common and Popular Objections against it Luke 14.23 Go and compel them to come in that my house may be filled LONDON Printed for Abel Swalle at the Vnicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard and Fincham Gardiner at the White-horse in Ludgate-street 1684. TO THE READER I Beseech thee believe that it is not to irritate or incense Authority against any denomination of Men that this Case is so publickly considered I hope the Clergy of this City have given such Instances of their Temper and Candor to those that differ from them that they shall not now be represented as men of Sanguinary Dispositions and Movers of Persecution And if after all their labour and pains to instruct and perswade men and give them satisfaction in all their great doubts upon which they separate from the Communion of the Church they must yet be reproached as Cruel and Persecutors of their Brethren it is but another taste of that Civility that they meet with from this Generation I know of no other design in these Papers and I am sure I have most reason to know but to remove an Exception that some have causelesly taken against coming to the Sacrament because they are forced to do so and to discharge some part of that duty that we owe to our Superiours with which the Author thinks it scarce consistent to hear men belch and rayl against the Government and the present proceedings of it without opening our mouths in their defence especially when what they do is so very fairly capable of it This I think an instance of that duty we owe to those above us out of which could we be frighted with hard words and ill Names we should have deserted it long since for this is not the first time I wish it might be the last that faithfulness and endeavours of service to the Government have been made our Crime and ministred to the ill usage we have met with from Some men I hope all the Exceptions against this great Service in our Religion will in time be singly considered and satisfyed and this is therefore crowded into the number of them and if it seem new or strange those cross and wayward tempers of men are only to be charged which have made this a new and strange Exception THE CASE OF Compelling Men TO the HOLY SACRAMENT I Can scarce ever read our Saviours famous Parable of the Noble-man's making a great Feast sending out servants to invite guests the unsuccesfulness of their invitation and the silly unworthy excuses framed against it till at last the Lord was constrained to arm other Servants with power and to compel them to come in but my mind is still running a Parallel between these things and our own present circumstances with respect to the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as well as some other things God Almighty hath been in this as gracious to us as ever he was to his own people the Jews He hath provided all things necessary to our Salvation and particularly hath furnished a Table with the precious Symbols of his own Son's Body and Blood That bread that came down from Heaven and is meat indeed and that wine that would chear our hearts and fill them with a joy that the world is a stranger to the lushious and sweet Feast in which we antedate Heaven and make seisure of and receive pledges for the happiness of it But alas our folly and madness is equal to theirs also we turn our backs upon these Heavenly provisions and frame Apologies and Excuses against them We let every silly occasion supersede our regard to them and seek for Arguments to furnish us with Reasons of keeping from them God keeps up a race of his servants the Prophets whose standing employment and office it is to strive with us and to perswade us to accept of that mighty Salvation that is provided for us and to partake of this service which is so greatly conducive to all the purposes of it and I think it may modestly be said they are faithful to their charge Yet alas how few will hear their report so as to comply with the end of it what a few can they perswade to become guests to their Lord and how long will it be e're his Table be so full that they may not say as the servant in the Parable did It is done Lord as thou commandedst us and yet there is room What shall we say to this neglect of men shall we stand bewayling and inveighing against the folly and madness of it we have done that long enough even till our throats are dry and yet to very little purpose God knows What have we now left but to get us to our great Master and tell the sad story of mens obstinacy to him how justly might we beg him to take the matter into his own hand to send out other servants more noble than we and arm them with power to compel men to come in just as that Master in the Parable did in the like case command his servant to go out into the high ways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled And so it is the wisdom of Authority hath prevented us and saved us the labour of making this request it hath thought fit to take the matter into it 's own hand in a great measure and to revive the Laws that the Piety and Wisdom of our Fore-fathers have thought fit to make to ingage men to a due care and observance of the Services of Religion and I would men would consider whether this can be thought less than necessary and whether they have not been fairly proceeded with Hitherto all fair means have been used nothing but love and kindness and all possible condescension Men have been indulged in their petulancy and time allowed for their prejudices and prepossessions to wear off in The Rod of the Law hath been only held over them but not suffered to fall on them Authority hath been pleased to wait till the common objection of one great Party among us is taken wholly away The great Plea against Conformity for twenty years past hath been the obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant which some of the Leaders of that great Party had taken and it hath been publickly declared that were not the renouncing of that required they would conform The time that this was required for is now expired and they are at liberty from that which they counted grievous to them but now instead of the promised Conformity there are new Arguments started against it and all the old ones furbished afresh the opposition against the Church more sturdy and obstinate if it be possible than before and all the pretences of Conscience in this matter shewed plainly to be meer trick and artifice This therefore hath
the same doth the King govern us and we have no more right to quarrel the commands of the one than Children and Servants have to repine and murmur at the precepts of the other which they never have but when either Parents or Masters exercise an authority that doth no way belong to them 2. Which in our case is not done for Secondly it is done by those whose power reacheth to these things and who stand accountable to God for them The power of Kings in Spiritual Matters was never questioned that I know of in the Christian Church till Pride and Ambition began to corrupt it's Faith and poison it's Doctrine and till Rome began to aim at a Spiritual Empire as well as it had had a Temporal one The Doctrine of discarding Kings and Emperours from any intermedling in Religion was first hammered in the Conclave and thence our Classical Divines have fetched it and I wish it were the only instance in which they symbolize with those that they so lowdly declaim against I am sure the Kings of Israel supervised and when occasion was reformed matters of Religion and the Church and the better that they were the more they interested themselves and employed their care about them and embalmed their Names more by that than all their Arms and glorious Atchievements And when the Apostle commands Christians to pray for Kings that they might live honest and godly i. e. religious lives under them he certainly thought their influence might be greatly helpful thereunto And the truth is I do not well see how Kings and Governours can blast their honour more and more blacken their own name than by looking only to their own grandour and honour without any concern for his whose Vice-gerents they are by living themselves in glorious and Ceiled Houses but letting that of God lye neglected and wast as the expressions in the Prophet are Certainly when the great and final Audit comes and when the Kings and Princes of the world come to stand before him by whom they Reigned who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords one great Inquiry will be how faithful they have been to him their great Master and how much or how little they have consulted his honour and interest in the world and those doubtless will give their accounts with most joy to themselves and most acceptation to him that have been tender of his Church and consulted the benefit of his Religion that have been nursing Fathers to the one and tender of the other and used their power to keep men in their duty to him and his Laws as well as to their own And the Governours in the Church and those that are over us in the Lord they watch for our Souls says St. Paul and must give account for them Heb. 16.17 So that we must not think that our Governours exceed the bounds and limits of their own power when they make Laws about Religion and tye us to observe the services of it or that they do these things arbitrarily only and to exercise their power over us no neither of these are true their power reacheth to these things and they are bound by their great Lord to take all the care they can of them and therefore we must excuse them they do but their own duty to God which they compel us to do ours 3. And that this is really our duty and tyed upon us by the Laws of the Gospel is the third Consideration and will adde another reason to vindicate them in compelling us to it If this thing were contrary to the Gospel then we might justly complain of their rigor and severity or were it left wholly indifferent then we might raise objections and pretend invasion of our Christian liberty by these Laws as tragically as we do in the like cases But when it is a thing plainly and expresly commanded by our Saviour and tyed upon us as a constant and standing service of Religion to be observed and practised by all Christians until his second coming again as it is most plain it is if we will either consider his own words or St. Pauls after him then certainly there cannot be the least room for an objection in this matter Those that say the least of the power of Kings and Temporal Governours do say they are obliged to see that the precepts of God be observed and kept by men and that they are to inforce the Laws of Religion by their own and when it is for their purpose will boldly call for this exercise of their power summon the Temporal Sword and Arms when their own Spiritual ones are too weak and be ready to anathematize and curse those powers that in this come not to help the Lord against the mighty It it be their own 〈◊〉 of Religion why then it is the Scepter of Christ whom all Kings are bound to support and if it be any thing that they lack to have observed why then it is the Lords cause and the supporting of it is no less than fighting the Lords battel for which the highest Praises and Panegyricks are too little And therefore methinks men of this temper and who are yet known to have acted still upon this principle should for shame cease to complain cry out against the Government for using their power in that which they themselves allow the exercise of it lawful in and not condemn it when it compels men to nothing but what the Laws of Christ have made their necessary duty 4. Yea and fourthly which is as really their interest and advantage as it is their duty for so it is in this as well as in all other precepts of the Gospel they are real instruments of our happiness as well as instances of our obedience I cannot now stand to enumerate all the benefits and advantages of receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and I need to do it the less because the Church hath done it for me I will only recite the words in her Catechisme which are sufficient at this time The strengthning and refreshing out Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ as our Bodies are by the Bread and Wine And certainly if any thing can be an Apologie for the present exercise of power in our Governours in constraining men to an observance of this service this may that it is a matter of pure kindness and nothing but their own gain that they are compelled unto they are severely dealt with indeed in this and a mighty wrong sure is done them when they are compelled to be made happy and good All the world hath ever granted it lawful and innocent nay prudent and wise to direct and govern those who are not able to govern and choose for themselves Parents restrain the ignorance of Children and think it no crime to whip them to that duty and exercise which they know to be good for them and Guardians do the same thing too for their Minors what they are assured is for their
such great need of these extraordinary interpositions of providence to this purpose as was formerly and therefore they ceased Just as the power of Miracles which was a long time continued in the Church yet ceased afterwards when the truth and Divinity of Christian Religion was sufficiently attested and could be maintained without them 2. But then secondly it may be demanded Why there is so very little account and so very few instances of this to be found in the History of the Church sure a thing of this nature must have been much taken notice of had there been any such and it is very strange that there should be so little account of it The truth of what is here objected must be acknowledged unless there be more examples of this thing than I have yet either by reading or conversing with Learned men been able to discover But yet this I think may fairly be accounted for 1. For first it is certain and greatly lamented by Learned men that we have but very little of the History of those early times of Christianity come to us whether it be from the iniquity of time or of men whether from the rage of War or spight of Enemies the artifice of Hereticks or the industry of those men who can as easily suppress ancient Records as falsifie and corrupt them or from what other causes it hath proceeded I know not but the truth of the thing is too plain and we might be assured of it had our selves never made inquiry by consulting the Labours of the best Antiquaries and the most curious and unwearied searchers into Primitive times Here and there some very great thing they have picked up so as to be able to patch up a History of some great mens Lives but alas far enough from the exactness and fulness that they deserved and any competent account of those times would have enabled them to have done And therefore I no more wonder that we have so little account of this than that we have so little too of many others which it would much have advantaged us to have had 2. And yet perhaps a good reason may be given for this even more than for some other things As for example It may well be supposed that this punishment was very rare nor was there much occasion to make use of it those times were famous for Piety and zeal to Religion those good men needed not to be whipped to their duty their own fervours and the rage of their Enemies kept them close to it and they were so exercised with almost daily and continual sufferings for their Religion and their Lord that they had no leisure or temptation to grow wanton against the Laws and constitutions of either And they were so taken up with recording their own sufferings and transmitting accounts of them as they used to other Churches that they forget to record almost any thing else and the truth is the giving account of the brave actions and glorious sufferings of their Martyrs and Confessors together with some few Apologies for themselves and their Religion is almost all that we have left us of those times 3. But thirdly it may yet further be urged that we may point to a space in the Primitive times before the Government became Christian when some Christians became very troublesome and Schismatical when this punishment would have been proper and in all likelihood of most effect to chastise those whom all gentler methods were unsuccessful with And yet we do not read any thing that this remedie and these punishments were made use of Such was the time in which that great man St. Cyprian lived who was much harrassed and vexed with the petulancie and faction of some Priests and others in their carriage towards the lapsed as they called those that fell in times of persecution and in whose time the Novatian Schism broke out which so troubled the Church Now this was a proper time for this great punishment and these effects of it would very likely have done much good This is an Objection which seems to come roundly up to the matter and doth require satisfaction which I shall endeavour to give to it in these following considerations 1. It is certain that this extream and highest punishment was but very rarely used or inflicted upon men and indeed I think I may say scarce ever but when the lesser intermedial censures of the Church were ineffectual and despised such were excluding men from the full Communion of the Church and imposing such Penances upon them as they judged the nature of their offences to require 2. St. Cyprian did use all fair ways to direct and inform these erring Priests yea some of the Confessors themselves nay even the Martyrs who granted Letters of Communion to many to these lapsi before they had satisfied the Church and threatned to use the censures of the Church against them if they did not reform and by that means did happily effect his purpose on many of them and the business of Re-baptizing of them which this controversie after grew into was a matter of question and dispute but not of any ill manners in the Church 3. It is plain when all other means failed with Novatus and he still persisted or rather grew more Factious and Schismatical St. Cyprian had Excommunicated him and inflicted this highest censure upon him had he not fled into another Country which flight of his shewed clearly what a mighty dread he had of that punishment And that being the common practice of notorious and great Offenders of all resolvedly Factious and Schismaticks at that time as is plain in many instances and particularly of Privatus and his followers in St. Cyprians time also is to me a farther clear Indication of this thing what a mighty dread and horror they had of this punishment for otherwise what needed they have fled away for the Church had no power to punish them in their Estates or Bodies any other way and therefore had they not feared this they might have stayed and defied all the Church could do to them 4. And fourthly if there be any instance producible of this not being used and these effects following when the party was desperately fallen into sin and yet might be reached It was perhaps for this only reason because they thought Schism a sin so odious and provoking and of such a monstrous guilt that the committer of it scarce came within the compass of common charity his case was hopeless and his sin scarce to be forgiven or prayed for and therefore that he forfeited the charity of the Church in using means for his recovery and those were never to be admitted to the Communion of the Church again who wilfully cut off themselves from it they had given themselves over to Satan in one sense and it was needless for the Church to do it in another And that this is not only a conjecture may be concluded from the great sense that those good
things and not to make use of their sayings till the same reasons and purposes call upon us Had they lived in our days I am confident they would have spoken at another rate and have been as earnest in perswading and convincing men of their duty as they were in directing of it been as sharp upon those that neglected to come so preparedly as they should I speak not this to remit any mans care in fitting himself for this God forbid but we have a different task now upon us and I tell you plainly I would rather men should come though they be not so exactly fitted than that they should not come at all I am sure it is better to do our duty though it be imperfectly than wholly to neglect and disregard it I would and by Gods assistance will direct men as well as I can how to come like Christians and good men duely prepared for this but I would not beat the aire in doing this until I had convinced men that it is really their duty to come But to return to my purpose what a symptome is it of a faint and almost dying Religion in men to need to be contended with or compelled in this instance Those good Christians of old that I have been speaking of could not be restrained by the sharpest Laws from this service but must daily ante-lucano tempore said the great Pliny rise before day to do it though it was made death by the Law to do so Our good Fathers in the times either of Queen Mary or the late Rebellious Usurpers what would not they have given for half that liberty that we enjoy who ventured their lives and whatever can be dear to men rather than neglect this service Lord what are we to these who need Laws to drive us and yet will not be driven neither what a strange unhappy peevish temper are we of we neglect to go when there are no Laws to compel us and we resuse to go when there are when we are indulged and left to our liberty then we neglect and disregard it and when the Laws are awakened then we complain and say we ought not to be forced but left to our liberty Nothing will please us nothing shall work upon us we refuse our food or convert it into poyson the means that should reform us make us worse and what our Governours use as a method to perswade us we use to a quite contrary purpose and make an argument for our not being perswaded and prevailed with 2. What peevish frowardness is this yea what mighty folly and weakness I would we would consider that in the second place We have been told that this service is our necessary duty and tyed upon us by asexpress and plain precepts as any other service in the Gospel therefore it were folly to need any compulsion to it But we are assured it is as much our interest as it is our duty and greatly conducive to all the interests of our Souls What weak people are we then that need to be beaten to our own good and like Children cry make a stir when we are dressed or called to our meat Consider it in the case of the Parable that I have related unto it was a Feast a Royal Entertainment that they were invited unto nothing but kindness and benefit to them was intended and yet we are much more our own enemies than they were for perhaps they had meat enough of their own at home and perhaps as good too But alas so have not we what have we of our own to feed and support our selves upon either nothing or nothing comparable to what we have here where our Souls may be feasted with the surprizing and ravishing pleasures of God's love and the love of our dear Lord and nourished with the Divine Graces of the Holy Spirit to which any thing that we have at home either in the entertainments of the world or vice are fiction and dream yea Aconite and deadly wine 3. Therefore instead of blaming our Superiours and quarrelling with the Laws that would compel us to come let us see if we ought not rather to blame our selves and reproach our own foolish temper that needs all this adoe and makes force necessary for us Had we that sense of our duty that we should and would we do it as became wise and good men we should never hear of Law or need to fear it But it is the neglecting nay obstinate resolving against this that makes us uneasie or draws any ill circumstances upon us we have none to complain of but our selves nor any thing done to us but what is necessary unless our Governours must draw the guilt of our ruine upon their own heads in neglecting to do what they can what they ought for the avoiding of it 4. Whose care I think in the last place we ought rather to take kindly and thankfully than stand quarrelling and murmuring against it instead of repining and complaining against our Governours fall down upon our knees and bless God that such care is taken of us That we are not left only to our own arbitrary will and conduct but that we have Fathers that consult for us as we do for our own Children who give them not up only to their own wild untutored passions and judgements but consult for them and tye them to those methods which we know good for them though they do not think so themselves We have seen by too sad an experience how unable most men are to govern themselves aright in matters of Religion what the effects of indulging and leaving men only to their own liberty are and we should certainly soon see the same or worse again Lord what extravagancies and follies are there so rank and wild that ungoverned men will not run into when they are indulged and left wholly to themselves What then do we not owe to the Divine Providence that hath set us under Government both in Church and State yea and what acknowledgments are big enough to be made to those that consider our temper and consult for our good do all they can to save us and to restrain us from destroying our selves We pray daily that God would not leave us to our solves but keep us under the influences of his Grace and guide us by his good Spirit and truly I think we have need too to pray that God will keep us in his Church and that those that watch for our Souls may be still careful and sollicitous for us guide us aright when we are unable to direct our selves and tye us to that duty that is so necessary and good for us when we grow wanton and regardless of it That when the great day of the Lord Jesus commenceth they may give up their accounts with joy and bless God for the success of their labor and care and we also may rise up and bless God for them and bless him with them and all of us be eternally happy in the enjoyment of him to whom be praise and honour and glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for Fincham Gardiâ—â—r 1. APerswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which respect Church-Communion 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of Englands Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in answer to his three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 8. The Case of mixt Communion Whether it be Lawful to Separate from a Church upon the account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions 9. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other parts of Divine Service prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament stated and resolved c. In two Parts 11. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where men think they can profit most 12. A serious Exhortation with some important Advices relating to the late Cases about Conformity recommended to the present Dissenters from the Church of England 13. An Argument to Union taken from the true Interest of those Dissenters in England who profess and call themselves Protestants 14. Some Considerations about the Case of Scandal or giving Offence to Weak Brethren 15. The Case of Infant-Baptism in Five Questions c. 16. A Discourse concerning Conscience wherein an Account is given of the Nature and Rule and Obligation of it c. 17. The Charge of Scandal and giving Offence by Conformity Refelled and Reflected back upon Separation c. 1. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther 2. A Discourse about Tradition shewing what is meant by it and what Tradition is to be received and what Tradition is to be rejected 3. The difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith c. 5. A Discourse concerning a Guide in matters of Faith c. A Companion to the Temple or a help to Devotion in the use of the Common prayer divided into Four parts 1. Of Morning and Evening Prayer 2. Of the Litany with the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings 3. Of the Communion Office with the Offices of Baptism Catechism and Confirmation 4. Of the Occasional Offices viz Matrimony Visitation of the Sick c. The whole being carefully Corrected and how put into one Volume By Thomas Comber D. D. Sold by Abel Swalle at the Vnicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard 1684.