COENA quasi ΚΟΙÎΗ The New-INCLOSVRES broken down AND THE LORDS SUPPER Laid forth in common for all Church-members having a Dogmatical Faith and not being Scandalous In a Diatribe and Defence thereof AGAINST The Apology of some Ministers and Godly People as their owne Mouth praiseth them asserting the lawfulness of their administring the LORDS SUPPER in a select Company Lately set forth by their Prolocutor Mr. HUMPHREY SAUNDERS Written by WILLIAM MORICE of Werrington in DEVON Esq LONDON Printed by W. Godbid for Richard Thrale and are to be sold at the Cross-Keyes at Paul's gate entring into Cheap-side M. DC LVII Augustin in Psal 48. Concio 1. Tom. 8. Pag. 93. EXigitur a manducante quod manducat non prohibeatur à dispensatore sed moveatur timere exactorem Chrysostom in 1. ad Cor. 11. Hom. 27. Tom. 4. Pag. 110. Quoniam Dominica coena hoc est Domini debet esse communis quaeenim Domini sunt non sunt hujus servi aut alterius sed omnibus communia quod enim Dominicum est idem commune nam si Domini tui est quemadmodum est non debes tanquam propria tibi assumere sed tanquam res Domini communiter omnibus proponere siquidem hoc est Dominicum nunc autem non sinis esse Dominicum cum non sinis esse commune sed tibi comedis Bullinger adversus Anabaptist l. 6. c. 9. p. 229. 232. Probationem Ministri aut Ecclesiae judicio non relinquimus ut tum demum aliquis ad coenam Domini accedat cum Ministri vel Ecclesia satis dignum fidelem sanctum judicaverit Probet homo seipsum non debet ab alio probari Musculus in 1 Cor. 11.28 Pag. 438 439. Apparet necessarium utile esse eorum studium qui neminem ad coenam Domini admittant quem ipsi antea non probaverunt si modus discretio adhibeatur nec velut universali lege indiscriminatim omnes etiam qui inculpate se gerunt in Ecclesia ad hujusmodi examen constringantur verum juxta timendum est ne institutum hoc quà m nunc magni aestimatur tam olim in priscam servitutem Ecclesiam Christi reducat noxium reddatur Sane Apostolica institutio nihil hujus requirit sed hortatur unumquemque ut seipsum probet sed quid si Minister Ecclesiae hac Apostoli sententia nolit esse contentus nec admittat nisiquos ipse explorat item quid si fidelis ad panis tantum non poculi Dominici communicationem admittatur sicut in Papatu fieri videmus Respondeo ubi nec Domini ea institutio nec Apostolica Doctrina servatur ibi non est ut communicet fidelis sinat Magistratus illos regnare in Ecclesia donec visum fuerit Domino modum imponere illorum Dominio Chamier Panstrat Tom. 4. l. 7. c. 19. S. 17. Pag. 196. Non sunt digne praeparati Scelus hominis cur indignos Sacramento dicis quos indignos negas pace Ecclesiae Itane tibi videatur qui censeantur in corpore Christi ut indignos pronuncies qui vescantur Christo at Chrysostomus negabat dignos esse qui vel precibus interessent quodnam quaeso ingenium tuum est Chrysostomi certe Catholicum vide ne tuum non Christianum Casaubon exercit ad annal Baron exercit 16. S. 31. Pag. 366. Coena Domini privatae epulae non sunt natura sua sed publica fidelium omnium invitatio The Summe of the Dissertation DIATRIBE SECT I. OF Antiquity and Innovation the Character of their Discipline the state of the question p. 29. DEFENCE SECT I. What Authority the Diatribe ascribed to the Fathers and ancient Church Why the Apologists derogate from them p. 32. SECT II. Of Antiquity Custome sad consequences of Independency the novelty thereof the Fathers not without errors yet not to be sleighted What may be called the Primitive Church Protestants alwayes honoured their Fathers and never declined their Testimony p. 33. SECT III. How the Apologists have suited their Discipline to comply with several-Parties and Interests the odious Blots of their Pen. p. 42. SECT IV. Whether the Diatribe were guilty of Petitio Principii 44. SECT V. Whether their Discipline advance Godlinesse The Sacraments are Seales of the Conditionall Covenant which Doctrine hath no affinity with semi-Pelagianisme Whether the exhibiting the Sacrament make men Saints Whether the giving thereof without discrimination upon tryal blind men in their sins or be the setting of the Seal to Blanks Whether the Sacraments are privileges of the Godly 1 Cor. 10. argumentative for a free Communion 46. SECT VI. Independent Bookes and Arguments Of Rhetorique what Builders the Apologists are 62. SECT VII The Apologists causlesly irritated by an Allegory 67. SECT VIII In whom the School vesteth the Power of Church-Censures Whether the Apologists may de jure or do de facto censure alone How they have restored the Sacrament 68. SECT IX The state of the Question the model of their Church Whether their way smack of Donatus his schisme Ecclesiastical Communion consists principally in Communion of Sacraments Of Examination precedent to the partaking of the Eucharist Whether and how necessary What knowledge may be competent What profession of Faith the antient Church required before admission to Sacraments Of Excommunication Suspension Presbytery the Apologists no friends thereunto 71. DIATRIBE SECT II. The Lord Jesus examined not his Disciples antecedently to his Supper He admitted Judas to the participation as the Fathers consentiently assert and the Scripture evinceth Luke 22.21 Joh. 13.2.26 27 30. discussed 96. DEFENCE SECT X. How we know Christ examined not the Apostles The force of Arguments from the Authority negative of Scripture Of the washing of the Apostles feet VVhether any did partake the last Supper save the 12. Apostles The Apologists conceit of the 70. Disciples Of Confession of Faith how and when necessary Examination is a virtual and interpretative diffamation VVhether it be a small thing they require VVhether Examination if it be necessary ought to be made but once 111. SECT XI Judas did communicate at the Lords Supper What is thereby inferred The Attestation of the Fathers in that matter the consent of later Divines The weight of the testimonies on either side the Apologists confess there was no visible cause to exclude him VVhether Christ in admitting him acted onely as a man His not condemning the adulterous woman 122. DIATRIBE SECT III. The sufficiency of Scripture whereupon Negative Arguments are grounded the Argument deduced from 1 Cor. 11.28 it is difficult and unsafe to judge of other mens estate Of temerarious judgment Of judging men to be wicked or irregenerate With what difficulty and what a Pedegree of consequences their proofs are derived from Scripture Generall Rules for satisfaction of doubting Consciences perswade the contrary to their way Of Christs admitting onely Disciples Heb. 13.17 Mat. 18.16 Rev. 2.2 1 Pet. 3.15 1 Cor. 5.11 explained and vindicated 134. DEFENCE SECT 12. 1
assume as large and free power to exclude some such even where no consistorial juridical formal proceeding can be had as they now take to put by and interpretatively to excommunicate all which they do while they at least many of them administer it to none but intermit the use thereof altogether or exhibit it to very few or none in comparison but to such onely as they have gathered into a new Church and therefore as one being asked where he found his interpretation concerning Constantines donation as another his gloss upon the Salike Law answered If any looked on the back-side of that Donation and so of that Law there it was to be found so might it be more aptly said that from whence they derived the power and liberty to excommunicate all by non-administration or so many by non-admission they might fetch a right to exclude persons scandalous yea and apparently ignorant But our Rhodus and Saltus our present question is whether it be not onely profitable but necessary antecedently to the Communion to make examination notional or real of the knowledge or the lives not onely of such who upon morally probable grounds may well be suspected to be incompetent for ignorance or crime but of all indifferently so as for want of will in any to submit to this probation they may justly be debarred the Sacrament and for want of power or means in the Minister to exercise this Discipline he may lawfully intermit the administration or administer it onely to such as will submit themselves thereunto gathered and convened and not by their proper Pastour out of distant places and several Congregations DEFENCE SECT I. What authority the Diatribe ascribed to the Fathers and ancient Church Why the Apologists derogate from them THe Paper so I shall call it after that name which the Apologists always give it at the Circumcision thereof in the first Section seemed to rise to the hoary head of Antiquity and cast a suspitious eye upon Novelty recognizing that habet ut in aetatibus authoritatem Senectus sic in exemplis antiquitas and accounting with the Oracle that to be the best complexion which was concolor mortuis yet this was delivered onely in thesi and general not in hypothesi or particular application to my subject and by way of preface not of argumentation as they suggest calling this the first-born argument which yet had no double portion of substance nor was the beginning of strength or excellency of dignity Fit enim naturae quodam instinctu judicio recto sanè si illo recte utamur ut in religionis negotio nova omnia sint suspecta ferè exosa Casaub exercit 16. S. 43. p. 390. There was notwithstanding not the least intimation made as if any thing that bears the stamp of Antiquity were therefore to be received but onely not hastily to be laid aside nor that any thing was to be rejected because new coined but not to be so easily entertained neither that whatsoever was ancient was infallibly true but the more credible nor that which was new was undoubtedly false but more suspicious The Apologists cannot say and whosoever shall make inspection into the Paper will not see that I attribute too much to Antiquity and if they would have ascribed any thing they needed to have said nothing But it seems they have the same quarrel to Antiquity which the Affricans have of the Sun Urit fulgore suo and as Herod being originally a stranger and Alien sought to suppresse the Genealogies of the Jewish Nation and especially of the Royal Linage so the Apologists seek to disparage and detract from the exemplary practice of the ancient Church and judgment of the Fathers whereunto in opinion and way they are strangers De Carthagine potius nulla quà m pauca I am not susceptible to assert the honour and reverend esteem of the illustrious Fathers as Iuther calls them neither shall I need to undertake it for though mutus fit oportet qui non laudabat Herculem yet it was no unapt check of Antalcidas Quis unquam sanus eum vituperavit But since the Apologists instead of answering the testimonies have thought to discredit the Witnesses and have somewhat enlarged themselves both in this and the 13. Section to lessen their authority It may seem proditorious to desert their Defence and to shew lesse zeal to support them than they have done to deprave their credit especially seeing as Isocrates was said to have made many Orations in sending forth many Orators and he that saves a Physician preserves many lives and many remedies So I shall in vindicating this Topick fortifie the Arguments drawn from it and if it seem out of my way yet it is but in fresh suit of the Apologists whom I am bound to follow SECT II. Of Antiquity Custome sad consequences of Independency the novelty thereof the Fathers not without errours yet not to be sleighted What may be called the Primitive Church Protestants always honoured the Fathers and never declined their Testimony THey embrace that saying That which is first is true because true antiquity is a friend to truth and every good way is old but they restrain and limit this to such age and antiquity as things may claim onely for being revealed in Scripture But this is not the onely antiquity which we are now debating of this is Antiquity proved Ex priori but it is Ecclesiastical antiquity as I may call it the consent and custome of the antient Church antiquity proved Ex posteriori which we are now considering of what authority it carries what reverence and esteem it merits and what force and influence it hath We concur to adore Divine Scripture antiquity as the best Veritas in omnibus imaginem anteceda postremò similitudo succedit I ertul. Aug. contra Crescon l. 2. c. 29. Idem de peccat merit remis 1.1 c. 22. In mâ—de natura 〈◊〉 â— 61. 〈…〉 Mihi pro his omnibus imo supra hos omnes Apostolus Paulus to assent to it as the truest as that which nec falli potest nec fallere and to captivate our understanding thereunto Sine ulla recusatione cum credendi necessitate But because this is the best and truest and most infallible antiquity therefore to infer that no other antiquity needs to be considered of or is worthy of reverence or can lend any strength of argument is as if I should conclude that because an Apodictick Syllogism whose principles are propositions verae primae immediatae priores notiores causae conclusionis is onely Scientifical that therefore all Dialectick Syllogisms concluding ex probabilibus are useless and despicable or that St. Paul argued both weakly and superfluously that the woman ought to have power on her head because of the Angels when it had been enough and more efficacious to have said because of God or because Christ is the onely Mediatour between God and Man by his merit and efficacy and
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
the Communion could not be Suspension because it was provided by sundry Canons that such as were deprived of the Communion should be put to doe penance before they could be reconciled and restored and that had been as much in effect as if they should be suspended in order to discharge them of Suspension But then secondly the Lay-Communion being onely Laicorum jus in corpore Christi mystico Ecclesia as it was contradistinguish'd to Ecclesiastical or Sacerdotal Communion the being put into the Lay-Communion was neither the doing of Penance nor any essential consequent thereof though perchance some that were adjudged to be degraded from being Clergy-men might also Concil Eliber can 50. as their offences were in merit be sentenced to penance Ut erat expressum in eorum elogiis judiciis saith Albaspinus and it appears that some when they had finished their penance were put into the Lay-Communion but formally and properly to be set in the Lay-Communion was onely a degrading or deposing of a Clerk and reducing him to the condition of a Lay-man being a censure onely inflicted on the Clergy and but the same which Augustine calls Degradation and the Councels Deposition and removing from Order Concil Elib can 51. Arelat 1. can 26. Chamier Tom. 4. l. 9. c. 3. and all Ecclesiastical Office as appears not onely by that of Gyprian Ut Laicus communicet non quasi locum sacerdotis usurpet but by a multitude of other Testimonies produced by Chamier Albaspinus and others To argue therefore they were admitted to the Laick Communion ergo they were not excommunicate is in effect to conclude they were made Lay-men ergo they were not excommunicated And if Penance were Suspension and the Lay-Communion were any part or appendage of penance it will carry a consequent implication that all Lay-men were suspended or else that to be suspended was to be admitted to the Eucharist as Lay-men were And let the Lay-communion be as Baronius and others would have it to partake the Sacrament without the Railes or could it be as Bellarmine supposeth to receive in one kinde yet in either way there was a communicating at the Lords Table Non diffiteor qui communicabat laicè accepisse eucharistiam more laicorum Albaspin de veter eccles rit l. 1. obser 4. p. 4. saith Albaspinus so as neither could penance formally have any affinity with the Laick Communion nor was any Penitent fully and perfectly in such Communion because during that state he could not partake of the Sacrament but when his penance was ended he intirely communicated as a Lay-man that is had the right and privileges of a Laick onely because he was not restored to Holy Orders whereof indeed he that had done penance was ever afterward â—ncapable And therefore I have laboured under much wonder to what end this Argument was produced I remember Maldonat tells us of a Text Luke 2.34 Facilior fuisset hic locus si nemo eum exposuisset and perchance we might have been more facile to beleeve that there might have been some evidence for Suspension in Antiquity if those that have so confidently assumed to prove it had not fallen so short of their undertakings and our expectation who as Scaliger said of Baronius that he did Annales facere non scribere so they have rather made than found their proofs and have rather imposed upon than informed us so that we may not know unless we shall continue ignorant But having cleared these mists let us look what purer light can be reflected upon us from the Monuments of the ancient Church that we may see to trace their foot-steps and discern what way they walked The notion of Suspension is scarce found in the ancient Fathers Augustine often speaks of Church-censures and sometime specifies the several Acts of Discipline Correption Excommunication Degradation but I have not met with the name much less the thing in all his Disputes against the Donatists where it was most likely to have occurred And had the Church in his time known any such Censure especially inflicted for want of a visible worthiness he could never have said as is pre-alleaged Si peccata tanta non sunt ut excommunicandus quisquam homo judicetur non debet se à quotidiana medicina Dominici corporis separare or had it been denizon'd in Chrysostome's age he would not have said that those which were unworthy to partake of the Eucharist were likewise unworthy to joyn in the Prayers and Hymnes But as Alexander scorned to steal a Victory in the night but would get it in clear day so we shall hide nothing that we can bring to light which may be of advantage to their cause though it seem to have been in the dark to all those which I have met with that have defended it who have said less for themselves than might be said for them and are therefore obnoxious to David's increpation who when they take themselves to be valiant men and who is like them in Israel yet have not kept their Lord so but that any one of the people may come to destroy him But nevertheless though Tellias get these new Pipes no Antinegidas need to be troubled for they will not sound to his Tune nor make any judicious man to dance after him To deal ingenuously as the Canons of the ancient Councels will lend the best Prospect of the Discipline of the Church those being the Mould wherein that was cast so we shall acknowledge that in those Canons we sometimes meet with the notion of Suspension like as we doe with those of Retentus Sequtstratus Remotus Segregatus Exclusus all of them Synonymous and all to be limited and defined by the terminus à quo that from which was the Separation But I doe with some confidence assert that suspended is there taken in the proper not the modern appropriate notion signifying a deferring of or detaining from and that not onely this one Ordinance of the Lords Supper but all Ordinances and is in effect but Excommunication carrying onely besides a connotation of a future restitution to Communion after penance done or satisfaction given The same words have not always the same sense in all Ages nor signifie the same things else we might conclude the Assemblies of the Heathen to be Churches and their Clerks of the Market to be Bishops and to argue that the term Suspension is found in ancient Records therefore there was such a thing as use hath since made the word to import carries as much reason as the Papists have to conclude that because prayer for the dead was used in the ancient Church therefore it related to Purgatory or is with as much sense as Valderama proves the order of Jesuites out of Scripture because it is there said that God hath called us to the society of his Son Jesus But that Suspension in the old Canons implies not a deferring of or detaining from the Eucharist onely and immediately but a
which by the concordance of Interpreters is interpreting of Scripture is a sign unto or serveth for believers therefore probation ought to be made whether they believe that are to partake of Prophecying or the Word preached As the Lopers said If we enter into the City we shall dy there 2 Kings 7.4 and if we sit still here we dy also so he that hears and believeth not shall be damned and he that eats and drinks without faith can but eat and drink his damnation there is no safer sinning in the one or other And Aristippus would have found no odds in dying by the bite of a Lion or a Weazel nor Heliogabalus been sensible of any difference in the kinde of his Halters and Poniards that should have killed him If the hope of learning and possibility of attaining faith may support and warrant a promiscuous admission to hearing the Word though notwithstanding many that hear have no right to the promises held forth in the Word nor any interest in the salvation offered in Jesus Christ but all those in effect signifie nothing to them yet nevertheless all must hear and those are generally and indifferently to be propounded to all if because the matter of the duty viz. Hearing is commanded by God it ought to be performed by all though many are not qualified to do it in due form or to a right end since our powers or our prosiciencies are not the measure of our duty but Gods precept and our obligation is not rooted in nor results from what we can do but what God will have done and the good commanded must be done though evil not causally but consequently not of it self but accidentally ensue in the doing Why either all these considerations should not in some measure and degree at least be extensive and applicable to an admission of all Church-members to the Sacrament or why considering this their solicitude and sedulity should not be extended and applied to the trying and preparing men in order to worthy hearing aswell as to communicating may seem not so much below reason as they say to ask as perhaps above it to answer But now when we can see no difference in the Grounds and Reasons and yet do behold such disparity in their affections and factions concerning the one or other Ordinance which did they simply and purely rise and flow from zeal to purity of Ordinances or salvation of souls would equally respect all Ordinances and salvation of souls in all like concernments We cannot be so blinde or so connivent as not to discern that which may facilitate us to suspect that the Sacrament is but the accessory some other thing is the principal which is reposited among arcana Imperii ragion di stato and the wheels of their Discipline run Byas and themselves like false Proxinetes under colour of wooing for their friend court for themselves and onely pretend to fit men for the Sacrament but intend better to fit them for their proper ends Canponantes sacramentum so that though Caesar apertly did invade the Soveraignty and Pompey pretends the name and interest of the Common-wealth yet the difference is no more than between a Storm and a Mine That there is not the same reason for a precedaneous examination in these two Ordinances they assay to prove Because Heathens are capable of the Word Go preach the Word to every creature The other is proper to Saints to strengthen and comfort the begotten Has fundit dives facundia gemmas But they forget that we are not disputing ad rem what is or ought to be done but arguing ad hominem what should be done consequently to their Principles viz. that Ordinances are not to be dispensed to persons unworthy who cannot but sin in participating unworthily and that they are partakers of that sin which admit them from which and the like Aphorisms there seems to result a necessity of examining Heathens precedaneously to their admission to the Word preached whether they are humble docil and facil to captivate their understanding to the obedience of faith or not 2. There is not the same reason for examining of Heathens as of those that be members of the Church What hath any to do to examine more than to judg those that are without The Ethicks tell us that some are not idoneous Auditors of moral Philosophy viz. young men not defined by paucity of years but weakness of understanding and inconstancy and levity of manners now though perchance a Reader or Master may sense it as the dictate of prudence to make triall of the ingeny and temper of such as by agreement are his profest Scholars yet it follows not that if a stranger shall accidentally go into or transiently pass through his School or being perswaded by some Declamations made abroad by the Master or Scholars of the excellency and praise of the Art shall purposely come with some propensness to become a Scholar if he shall like the Doctrine which is taught that he must suspend his Lectures and impose silence on himself untill he have tried the capacity and docibleness of his adventitious Auditor 3. Though Pagans may be permitted to be Hearers and yet in the ancient Church they were not admitted to hear all the parts of Scripture indefinitely but onely some special portions thereof yet they hear it not as their Word or that wherein they can yet claim any actual right or interest In 1 Cor. 14.22 Prophesying is a sign for them that believe a sign of favour and benediction whereby God teacheth and blesseth his people as Paraeus Aquinas A Lapide c. primarily and principally intended to the faithfull Plato who is therefore called Moyses Atticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to have been very conversant in the writings of Moses whereunto some think he refers in that frequent phrase As the old saying goes the fifth Commandment is explicitely found in Homer and divers of Solomon's Proverbs in the moral Philosophers yet nevertheless it was the proper privilege of the Jews that to them were committed the Oracles of God A Writing or Deed belongsonly to him to whom or to whose use it is sealed and delivered though an unteressed stranger may perchance hear it read In the Charter of a City none hath actual interest until he be incorporate and made free yet a forreiner may hear the purport thereof and perchance may consultly be made acquainted therewith to facilitate and inflect him to denizen himself through the alluring hope of participating the benefits and privileges thereby granted yet all that while the Magistrates hear no obligation to make inspection into or take account of his condition that is not yet under their government 4. We are now disputing onely of Christians and such as are of yeers of discretion Defence of the Admon S. 1. p. 118. and of such Mr. Cartwright expresly sayes If they be not meet to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Supper they are not meet
est persuasio de usureram indifferentium per synechochen generis as Piscator and Calvin in effect consenting with him and however they rebel against this light yet it strikes on their eyes to make them see and say also in this very Section that the Apostle speaks of those who were not of a pure gospel judgment about ceremonies Paraeus onely by a proportionable accommodation extends it to those that are infirm circa mores studium pietatis qui languidius profecerunt saepius hallucinantur in vita such as are carnal not simply but in some respect and therefore concludes in opposition sure to their principles tali inaequalitate domesticorum dei non est quod offendamur But they here part hands with their brethren who they confess go beyond their warrant when they take Saints of the first magnitude onely into fellowship But sure their warranâ—s are brethren too aswel as they and they can pretend no better warrant to exclude all save of the second or third magnitude then their brethren can shew to reject all save of the first We think that though one starr differs from another in glory yet every the least star while it stands in the firmament of the Church ought to be in fellowship and Constellation with the rest and till he prove a falling star a nebula or plain nebulo it will be onely a by blow of the taile of the Dragon to cast him to the earth I is Gods prerogative to tell the number of stars there are many pure stars more than we can see the Galaxi is but a Congregation of them and some stars that are eclips'd toward earth shine upward to heaven and to own none for stars but those that will move concentrick with them and borrow all their light from them is a false astronomy and fits none but those that would set their nest among the stars The judging of others estate and condition the waies and cautels of doing it are but perergas and heterogencals to our question for it is not mens goodness or regeneration which is the foundation of their right or interest to the Lords Supper buâ— Church membership with a dogmatical faith compleats a title to Ecclesiastical Communion and consequently to the Sacrament and it is a contradiction in the adject and a meer bull though such an one as Mariana saith are sometimes let loose in Spain in solemne places which gore and overturn and trample on the people that a man should be a member of the Church and yet not be recelved to Church fellowship Whatsoever other qualifications are requisite to the person in order to his coming to the Sacrament yet they are to require nothing more in foro exteriori for his admitting cum enim quilibet Christianus ex hoc ipso quod est baptisatus sit admissus ad Dominicam mensam saith Aquinas non potest jus suum ei tolli nisi pro aliqua causa manifesta 3. q. 60. art 6. they need look for no other positive thing if they discern nothing privative viz. no notorious crime that may forfeit that right if they see nothing to disprove it they may spare to seek for what may farther prove and verifie it charity carries with it an obligation practically and negatively at lest to judge all those to be good that are not manifestly evil and therefore he that is not visibly unworthy is visibly worthy because a visible member and if worthy of a Communion in other Ordinances as hath before been argued why not in this also unless as the Orators exalted eloquence that themselves might rise therewith so they elevate the Sacrament to a higher sphear because themselves pretend to be the Intelligences that must onely make it move or rest and I should desire them to shew me any Scripture ground whereon they can build this bypothesis That those intelligent persons who are worthy to have Communion in the Word and Prayer are unworthy of fellowship in the Sacrament It is granted they may make judgment of such as actually discover themselves by scandall or perhaps potentially by a violent suspition but to make discoveries of others in order to judge of their state or condition they have none but a forged warran that bears not the Teste of heaven nor is exemplified in the Rolls of the Scripture and therefore whereas they say That Calvin affirms that judgeing in this place Rom. 14.10 is to bring men under our own lawes Though I finde not that he makes that interpretation yet it being true secundum quid because a divine truth though perchance not simpliciter becaus not proper to the place yet supposing it were so we cannot but conclude they judge their brethren because we finde their lawes under which they would bring them but they are yet to seek of those of Christ unlesse they will doe as the Glosse on Gratian hath done to cite a whole sentence for Scripture which is no where or will have us to think of them as Hosius teacheth of the Church of Rome Dist 43. Si quis verb. postulat that what pleaseth them is the expresse word of God If as they profess they exclude not but take the weakest then they ought to admit all those that are not guilty of scandall for other sins are but weaknesses and so denominate their subjects If as they say they refuse none but the dead and bastards and contemners of Gods waeyes It is a sad topicall fate which hath befallen the places they settle in if all those grounds they cultivate bear no other fruit but such as that near Sodom Lake which how specious soever it seems yet proves to be but dust and emptinesse when they take them in hand and it is no personall felicity to have the luck of the worst harlot that theirs is alwayes the dead child and after all their fishing for men they rather have the fortune of those which indeed is just about their proportion that doe fish for pearls in Mare del Sur where Acosta relates that there is scarce one round pearl found for an hundred raggs and their people so desperatly evill that nothing else could rectifie them but that which Antonius Augustinus borrowes from Martial to apply to Gratian Vna litura to blot them all at once out of the communion but if they refuse none but such as are dead and bastards they cannot pass this dreadfull verdict upon them unlesse they have convicted them to be scandalously wicked and yet they tell us we passe an uncharitable judgment upon them to account that they judge so uncharitably of those they receive not whereas it cannot but be clear that all are wicked whom they reject if they refuse none but such as are wicked Yet as truth is like light which cannot be hid but will find some crany to shew it self and was anciently saith Pierius described Hicroglyphically by a Peach which is like an heart and a leafe hanging thereon in resemblance of a
fumes and exhalations thereof have eclips'd that Light of Doctrine which they confess formerly filled our Hemisphere it hath been onely forward to undo us and successful as Pompey was great miseriâ nostrâ and as Curio was eloquent malo publico and was brought forth with more unrighteousness then ever it was with-held O utinam arguerem sic ut non vincere possem Me miserum quare tam bona causa mea est Yet is it aes alienum to acknowledge that I neither can justly charge upon the Apologists nor will I leave them under the least suspition of having any personal share of or proper guilt in the Heresies and Profaness speculative and practical Antiscripturisme whose abominations in this Land make all good eyes to water and godly hearts to bleed But I look on Independency the Principles of which Discipline have imposed on the Apologists as the summum genus the common Principle and as it were the Trojaa horse of all those evils for as the jangling Sects of Philosophers pretended to be all Socratical so the differing Sects assume the Livery of Independency which is the Basis as Physitians speak of the Composition and the Bond and Common tye of the Bundle So as I impute not the mischief to Independents distributively but collectively nor think them to flow formally and inseparably from Independency in the Abstract so as to spread through al the denominations but to have spawn'd from Independents in the Concrete and that Discipline hath given the occasion of the rise and growth thereof which how strict soever it pretend to be in admitting to Church-membership or Communion of Sacraments yet is too loose in the liberty afforded to Opinions in a conceit somewhat like Tamberlains That Religion is like a Posie which is most sweet when made up of variety of flowers In an epidemical Contagion some may be yet antidoted by temperament and habitude of body yet the Pestilence is mortally infections and although there are many good Subjects of the notion of Papists yet Popery hath many treasonable and seditious Principles So though under the notion of Independents there are many Orthodox men yet Independency is causally very heterodox as he that lets down the Fence or lays open the Gap is guilty of all the mischief which the wilde Beasts do in the field They ask whether we say the Sun rose not till twelve because it shined not till then or that America was a second or new Creation because sound out of late and thereupon perswade us that their Government is elder than the former Custome of our Predecessours and not younger than the Scriptures and that it is unreasonable and unsafe to look onely on the Customes and Practices of the next Ages before us which they are sure worship'd God impurely Though Clouds may mask the face of the Sun at one place or for one instant yet it shines forth in some other and not onely by discourse of reason but by evidence of sense after the Sun is come into our Horizon we know he is risen for we then always see the light thereof though not in full brightness thereof perhaps for without that light we could not well see Though America was but lately discovered to us it was not unknown to all others the Inhabitants were not ignorant thereof and we know all this while under what Meridians and Parallels it was situate and we are satisfied that it had a real though no notional existence in respect of us but we are still to seek where this new world of their Discipline was in being until it was found out of late And suitably to the products of divine inspiration or results of rational discourse a thing of this kind could have no being till it was found out and therefore not fitly compared with America If they can assign when and where antiently their new light of discipline shined before we saw it unless perhaps some flashes thereof were among those who supposed they had more light of truth The Donatists alleaged in defence of their Separation that of Cantic 1.7 because more of the Sun-beams and thought that onely among themselves the Beloved made his Flock to rest at Noon I shall yeeld there was such a Sun though latter ages saw it not else I shall suspect it to be onely Parelius a counterfeit Sun subsisting onely in the vapours and exhalations of modern heads Antient Customs may be antiquated and again redintegrated some truths in some ages smothered by the predominating Errour and Faction and be afterward revived for Nullum tempus occurrit Regi Coelorum But it is one thing to be new Jewel apol p. 5. c. 1. Divis 1. another to be renewed Quod verum est serum non est saith Saint Ambrose As there can be no change in God himself so ought there to be no change in his Religion saith that Gemma Theologiae If therefore their Discipline were but lately found out it will be found to be without warrant If they will commence per saltum Neb. 7.63 64. and say it is as ancient as Scripture but cannot trace the descent and pedegree thereof through any one age of the antient Church they are onely like those Priests the Children of Habajah who sought their Register among those that were reckoned by Genealogy but it was not found therefore were they as polluted put from the Priesthood Although we shall gladly dormire inter medios cleros that is saith S Augustine in utriusque Testamenti authoritate conquiescere In Psal 67. ut quando aliquid ex i's profertur probatur omnis contentio pacifica quietè finiatur Yet besides that they are likely to have as little foundation in Scripture as they implicitly confess to have support from the practice of the antient Church In the interim also they contract many prejudices not easily to be wrastled with for who will hastily beleeve that in this age which to other works of the flesh hath added swarms of Heresies mali mores excoecant intellectum saith Ockham the Light of Discipline should break out when so many gross Clouds eclipse the greater Luminary of Doctrine that this secret of the Lord should not have been with those that feared him in so many ages whom he promised to teach and to be with and to lead into all necessary truth Non verisimile est ut tot tantae in unam sidem erraverint saith Tertullian Et quod apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed traditum nor reflected on us by those great Stars of the Primitive Sphere between whom and some others is no more comparison than between the pillars of the Temple and their shadows as Nazianzen magnifieth Basil and when the like late discovery cannot be asserted of any other truth And lastly that this Discipline should be so necessary when the Church of God for many ages flourished in godliness knowledge and peace and yet was never acquainted with it
for the constitution and exercise thereof as may suit with order and decency and conduce to edification in godliness and advance of truth and peace so my tractable will is ready to embrace and submit to any that shall not check with these rules nor retrench those ends as to me Independency seems apparently to do but which else shall be to those ends most subservien I suppose may be aptly demonstrated ex posteriori and not obscurely determined by Time the Mother of Truth and Experience the Mistress of Wisdome rather than in an unhappy contest about setting on such or such a garment on the Church to tear her flesh and scatter her limbes and in a difference about making the hedge to burn up or devast the field And as Discipline seems but as the Garment of the Church so Joseph may be his Fathers darling and yet have a party-coloured coat Epist 86. Tom. 2. p. 76. In ista veste varietas sit scissura non sit saith St. Augustine and elsewhere in the like case Omnis pulchritudo filiae regis intrinsecus illae autem observationes quae variae celebrantur in ejus veste intelliguntur unde ibi dicitur in fimbriis aureis circumamicta varietate sed ea quoque vestis ita diversis celebrationibus varietur ut non adversis contentionibus dissipetur To think to hang the whole frame of a Government upon two or three words onely in Scripture as Curio did the people of Rome upon one hook in his Amphitheater and which may as rationally be understood of and as properly applyed to another subject matter and persons as those which they expound it of and which would hardly ever be so interpreted but by a judgment seasoned with their infusions and predisposed by their glosses or facilitated by proper affection to beleeve what they would have to be Truly I cannot but wonder with Cato that one Soothsayer doth not laugh when he meets another A wise and learned man tells us Sir W. Raleigh that Ignorance hath set Philosophy Physick and Divinity in a Pillory and written over the first Contra negantem principia over the second Virtus specifica over the third Ecclesia Romana to which we may adde the fourth though set there more by Interest and Faction than Ignorance even Discipline and superscribe Jure Divino I am not of that Elevation nor my judgment at that Ascendent that either should be worth the notice Et melius fuerat non scribere namque tacere Tuum semper erit and therefore the Greek Epâ—gran called Silence Pharmacum tranquillitatis fortissimum And perchance the not carrying of a stone in my mouth like the Cranes flying over the Cilician Mountains to prevent their cacklings may draw many about my ears for to deliver my self in such an opinion is to set Athanasius against the whole World and the whole World against Athanasius but because Momus would have every one to have a window in his brest and the importunity of the Apologists hath coacted me to manifest that I hold no opinion which I dare not own and as that Romane professed of his house I could be content my bosome were patent to every man I have therefore adventured to deliver my judgment as one that am peaceable and faithful in Israel And though Ursius Crispus found more of safety when Ille igitur nunquam direxit brachia contra Torrentem Yet he should have had more honour and conscience had he been Civis qui libera posset Verba animi proferre vitam impendere vero But yet I do not know why I should not claim my share of that rara temporum felicitas as Tacitus calls it and wherein our age exceeds that of Nerva Ubi sentire quae velis quae sentias loqui licet But Quis coelum terris non misceat mare coelo In tabulas Syllae cùm dicant discipuli tres Who can patiently hear the Apologists traduce others as averse from Presbytery when that disaffection lies in their own Wallet More vulgi suum quisque Contra Ruffin l. 3. flagitium aliis objectantes as Tacitus in the case of Vedeius Aquila yet forgetting that caution of Hierom Caveas in alterum dicere quod in te statim detorqueri potest and what is their opinion of or affection to Presbytery make judgment as they did of Hercules by this foot-step they tell us that Mr. § 37 Jeanes hath his advantage upon his adversaries among whom it seems they rank themselves by this P. 170. that he holds them strictly to Presbyterian principles from which it appeares they would go loose whereas they think it safer to transgress a disputable principle of Presbytery so as it appears they are not convinced of the certainty of those principles which by being still disputable are onely problems and not principles than to offend against the light of the word Whence it follows that a man cannot keep close with Presbyterian principles without clashing with the Word and then also these principles are not disputable but undoubtedly and indisputably false and vitious if they cannot adhere to them without receding from the holy Scripture When they can wipe off and expiate these blots which their Pens have drop'd upon Presbytery and point out any as black and odious shed from mine let them mark others with a black coal or their black Ink for adversaries to that way in the interim Nonne igitur jure merito vitia ultima fictos Contemnunt Scauros castigata remordent Besides how little their model and course symbolizeth with the Presbyterian way he may reade that runs it over Rarely do the Presbyterians use Censures and on very few do they inflict them Who ever in any of those forrein Churches of that Discipline hath found the farre greatest part of their people under suspension or any suspended but upon regular process for the scandal of some notorious evil obstinately continued in after admonition Because they turn aside from this way we walk not with them who should easily be at agreement did their way agree with the Presbyterian DIATRIBE SECT II The Lord Jesus examined not his Disciples antecedently to his Supper He admitted Judas to the participation as the Fathers consentiently assert and the Scripture evinceth Luk. 22.21 Joh. 13.2 26 27 30. discussed IT is St. Basils conclusion extracted from the Exordium of Moses and St. John In the Beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to begin at the beginning In quavis institutione quod primum est praecipuum Et primum in uno quoque genere est regula mensura reliquorum Consentaniously St. Paul makes Christs first institution the pattern of all subsequent administrations as being perfect and exact in all Essentials He received of the Lord what he delivered and he disclaims all additionals but now our Lord Christ when he first instituted this Sacrament made no previous examination of his Disciples before he administred it to them he
us that all that Christ did was not written true but it follows not all was not written therfore all things necessary to be done or beleeved are not written The Evangelists are very punctual and exact in setting down things circumstantial cannot therefore be piously imagined to have omitted matters more substantial what was necessary to have been done was of necessity to be written for our example and learning without yeelding a deficiency destructive to the perfection of Scripture wherefore grounding the assertions upon the next verse of the same Evangelist Tract 4.9 Such Iohn Augustine tells us although Christ spake and wrought some things which are not written yet those things which seemed unto him sufficient to the salvation of Beleevers were selected to be written and Cyril assures us that so much as holy Writers judged sufficient for good manners and godly faith are written Cyril Alexan l. 12. John c. ultimo cited by F. White answ Fish to the end that we shining in right faith good works and virtue may attain the Heavenly Kingdome If therefore pre-examination had been so necessary to those ends as they suggest doubtless Christ did practise it and that practice would have been registred since his example was to be part of our rule as themselves confess and therefore to be made known and laid before us so as they need not scornfully put us to prove that Christ did not examine his Disciples since it may be well concluded he did not because they cannot finde it registred that he did had it been necessary to be done it had been recorded and not being recorded he thought it not necessary But that he might notwithstanding examine them is as rationally suggested out of John 20 31. Many other things Iesus did which are not written As rationally indeed as the pack of Popish Traditions is thereby confirmed for proof whereof this is one of their common places But whereas they tell us that they cannot finde that Christ examined not his Disciples unless on the back-side of Constantines Denation which the Paper mentioned Rather as the challenge of the power to compell all men to submit to their examination proceeds from the like ambitious spirit as did that forged Donation so the concession thereof is either some interlining or endorsement of the same charter They next teach us that argumentum à Scriptura negativè non valet which being delivered generally and unlimitedly or applyed to the special point in hand where the fact is constitutive of the rule and dogmatical impresseth some wonder in what School they learn'd such Logick or such Divinity which is not taught by any Protestant The Papists who shame not to profess that many Doctrines of Faith are neither openly nor obscurely expresly nor involvedly contained in Scripture In Thom. 22. q. 1. art 10. as Bannes in terms and that therefore to tye our faith to Scripture onely is to play the fool and marre all Religion as is affirmed by Coster I admire not if they decry these Arguments ab authoritate Scripturae negativè that so they may better advance their common topick of traditions and therefore it is not strange that their Logicians Hunnaeus Litelmau Tom. 2. contra 3. de missa l. 1. c. 24. p. 706. and Fonseca deride them but also their Achilles Bellarmine magisterially tells us Illa argumenta negativa non habetur expressè in Scriptura ergo non est fastum jam ipsis pueris ridicula sunt But such Arguments having for their basis the perfection of Scripture as the rule of all things to be done or beleeved or of Faith and manners as Augustine speaks and which could not be the rule if it were not commensurate to both nor perfect if it wanted any thing Surely for these that with Lyrinensis confess the Canon of Scripture to be perfect and in it self sufficient for all matters yea more than sufficient to explode or censure these negative Arguments is to betray the Fortresses of the Faith and make over the Armory of the Church to the Enemy Keckerman Alsted which in the Common-wealth the Law makes Treason But notwithstanding not onely our celebrious Logicians in their Topicks assert and verifie them our famous Divines generally in their Disputes against the fifth Gospel of traditions doe practically approve them the ancient Fathers use and authorize them as the Scripture denieth what it noteth not saith Tertullian We beleeve it not because we reade it not saith Hierom we ought not so much as to know these things which the Book of the Law contains not saith Hilary but even the Scripture it self affirmeth and argueth for such Negative Arguments yeelding examples of them Jer. 19.5 Joh. 8.40 1 Cor. 11.16 Heb. 1.13 as which I commanded not nor spake it this Abraham did not we have no such custome nor the Churches of God to which of the Angels said he c. And as judgment often varieth with interest and things acquire the price not so much for what they are really in themselves as for what they are relatively to our ends and turns so that which is no good money when they should take it Norton pretest appeal l. 2. c. 7. S. 9. c. 25. S. 12. is currant coyn when they should pay it Not onely Rellarmine himself as also other Pontificians like this Weapon well enough when they think they can give a blow with it and do make use of such Negative Arguments as a very learned Divine at large declareth but even the Apologists themselves though they here expel this Iephta as the sonne of a strange woman yet when they have need of his help in their distress they court him again in this same Section so as that Iraeneous saith of some others Cùm arguuntur à Scripturis convertuntur in accusationem Scripturarum so onely they are against those Arguments when such Arguments are against them Next I do not know how to understand the Apologists when they say It is too confidently affirmed that Christ shewed his Disciples the nature and end of the Sacrament which seems to me as the refuge of a person desperate of help and then etiam ad novaculam as if they would catch hold of that which would certainly wound and uncertainly relieve them for if they suppose absolutely and generally that our Saviour declared not these at the Institution how can that consist with the wise and holy and perfect discharge of his prophetical office for if he taught it not then where did he unfold or where else did he deliver that Doctrine How could the Apostles have that competency of knowledge which might render them capable to discern and partake of the Lords body and how was that a Sacrament Sacramentorum verò ea natura est ut non modò non cognosci sed ne esse quidem omnino sine verbo queunt Thes Salmur part 3. S. 15. pag. 34. si concionari est explicare seu vivâ
how incompetent those Elders are ad hic nunc to be set up as Judges being of such parts and education I need not say who as little dare to undertake as they are unable to act any thing without the infusions and conduct of their Pastor and though I will not say as the Italians do of the Cardinals in the conclave in relation to the sense of the Pope That they do assentari non assentire yet others cannot but observe that the Elders of those Churches which be spoken without any odious extension to all of that Notion are but Cyphers serving onely to add the more of number and like Mercury in conjunction with the Sun lost in the light and having no influence but what is derived from him and as in the Consulship of Julius Caesar and Bibulus because the one carried all the sway and honour from the other they dated writings Julius and Caesar being Consuls no mention being made of Bibulus so notwithstanding the conjunction of the Elders the Ministers are virtually and in effect sole in the action and act arbitrarily too for any rule or Canon that ever I could take notice of to regulate their proceeding but in whomsoever the power be vested yet nec unquam satis fida potentia est ubi nimia est and whatsoever the men may be that exercise it yet Vespasianus moderatus sed imperator non libertas Lastly Whether this be not more than half way towards the Independents and symbolize not with the Congregational way for what subâ—â—antial difference is there between their gathering a Church and this collecting together of Communicants some out of one place some out of another What material disparity is there between this admitting none without profession made and satisfaction rendred of their sufficiency both in faith and manners and then entring into fellowship and the Independent Covenant As their way of gathering is the same so their way of governing the Church is very like the Independents admit any to the hearing of the Word not to the Communion of of the Body and Blood of Christ so do these they have further conformity in admitting and countenancing their gifted brethren to pray publickly and though not in their publick places of convention nor in the formality of preaching Bayly diswas c. p. 174. yet to teach in their private Assemblies and Meeting-houses according to the medious way excogitated by some Independents to reconcile the different opinions among themselves upon that matter and it is said that not the Elders onely but the whole Congregation doth occasionally make judgment Are not both they and the Independents equally guilty of an Allotrioepiscopacy of removing the ancient Land-marks and confounding of Churches and limits and taking in such of whose souls they have by no law nor consonancy to good order any proper or special care and of a resemblance with the Partrich Ier 17.11 which gathereth the young which she brought not forth as was the ancient and is still the marginal reading and of that magick which Furius Cresinus among the old was slandered with of charming and bringing other mens fruits into his field contrary to holy Scripture Acts 20.28 1 Pet. 5.2 Heb. 13.17 Can. 17. not in quosdam Canones Concil Gal. p. 160. Can. 20. Can. 6. apud Magdeburg 7. apud Caranz L. 1. Epist 5. Epist 6. contrary to that rule of righteousness what you would that men should do unto you even so do unto them Matt. 7.12 contrary to the ancient Canons of the first Council of Arles Ne quis Episcopus alium Episcopum conculcet hec est involare in vicini sui diaecesim saith Albaspinus and the third Council of Carthage Vtâ—a nullo Episcopo usurpentur plebes alienae and the first Council of Carthage nequis vel clericus vellaicus sine literis Episcopi in aliena Ecclesia communicet and contrary to the judgement of Cyprian singulis pastoribus portio gregis est adscri ta quam regat unusquisque gubernet rationem sui actus Deo reddat oportet eos quibus praesumus non circum-cursitare and again sine spe sunt perditionem maximam indignatione Dei adquirant qui schismata serunt rolicto Episcopo alium sibi foras pseudo-episcopum constituunt So as they must excuse me to think that they onely take magni nominis umbram when they sometimes assume the name of Presbyterial Churches at best they can be but blended and by mixture constituted of some of the principles of the one way and the other Amphibii Zoophytes Epicaenes like the Chymicall naile in the Duke of Florence his cabinet part Iron and part Gold like the Amphisbaena that hath two heads and moves two divers wales that have a Crow for Caesar and another for Anthony or as the Angel in the Revelation that flew between heaven and earth is by a learned man interpreted to be Gregory the Great who was the last of the good Popes and the first of the bad so they may passe for the worst kind of Presbyterians though the best sort of Independents But surely as Aristotle said of the Milesians That they were not fools but yet they did the very same things that fools doe so if these be not Independents yet they have the same actions and wayes There may be and are some differences perchance in opinion and practice between the one and the other but that impedeth not but that they may passe under one notion and denomination The Churches of France and Spain are in many points Antipodes each to other Azorius will tell us that what is the common opinion in the one kingdome is not so in the other as concerning the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary and the worshipping the Cross with Latria c. yet both are Papists and so are all they among whom Bellarmine himself by the account of Pappus reckons up above three hundred different opinions and perhaps we might find far more among those who properly and professedly passe for Independents and so many perchance as are not to be reduced to a fixt certain number except by a second Clavius who hath in one sum set down the number of the sands that would fill up all the concave space between the Earth and the eighth Spheare or peradventure so many as there are Indulgences in that one Church of Lateran which a Papist saith none but God can number and he Indeed at his great day of account will be sure to number both the one and the other And as these mens ARguments are most of them Arrows taken out of Independent Quivers and sharpned on their Anvils so let assay be made by some skilfuller hand more versed in these controversies whether the forces mustred against separation fight not most of them against this new modell which I know nor how to blanch or palliate with any other name than a Separation a separation of themselves as the purer part from the dregges of the
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 analogie with Popery and accidentall tendencie thereunto THey first give us a tast of a new dish of Philosophy As the other section tasted so this say they smels insinuating that this is more odious than the former and that implies that the object of smelling is more abominable than that of tasting But truly he that shall be of such judgement I shall not envy him to receive a nasty thing into his mouth rather than take it in his nose But Nasutus sis usque licet sis denique nasus what other smell hath it than such as rotten ulcers doe alwayes exhale when they come to be launced and opened and deal never so gently with such etiam mel ulcerata mordet Such hard thoughts they are more grieved to read than troubled to answer The truth is they do not much trouble themselves to answer levamentum aliquid est miscriarum non reniti And perhaps the Parde hath wounded the Dogge that though he open yet he cannot bark But they may perchance be grieved to read what doth Auriculas teneras mordaci radere vero and are as impatient to heare the name of Diotrephes as Caligula that was rough and hairy could not abide the mention of a Goat They next give us a smell of their flowers of Poesie Pudet haec opprobria dici non potuisse refelli say they but this is the ill luck of it to borrow their phrase that having in all their walk made but this one step on the feet of verse it falls out to be lame and maimed and onely thereby have made it more their own Nam malè dum recitas incipit esse tuus The Camel say they troubles the water that his own deformed image may not be therein conspicuous so the Papists to set the Pope out of suspition of being Antichrist have painted forth that man of Sin with such lines and colours as carry no resemblance with the Bishop of Rome and so the Apologists give us a false copy of Diotrephes lest they should appear to be his counterpart But as the Coryphey of our Judges and Oracle of our Lawes was wont to say that if a Pursevant should be sent forth to fetch up Antichrist that were described by such characters as he is held forth in Scripture he would doubtless seise upon and bring in the Bishop of Rome if he had power to do it so if a hue and cry should issue for such persons as carry the marks of Diotrephes I doubt if some men would not be apprehended and though Apelles convened many beautiful Virgins the better to limbe the picture of Venus yet perchance fewer would serve from whose comportment to draw a perfect image of Diotrephes They say we are mistaken of Diotrephes his ambition rather crossed John than oppressed the people he was an heritick that depressed John and would be in the Church above him but was no rigid imperious Presbyter toward the people and for this interpretation they alledge Estius Not to make any reflection how incuriously they take Authors in hand or credulously receave them on trust who might else have known that Estius carried on his Commentaries on the Epistles no farther than the seventh verse of the fift Chap. of the 1. Ep. of St. John what is additional in that and in the following Epistles was the continuation of Bartholomaus Petrus nor to step out of our way to enquire whether Diotrephes were an heretick because it hath no tendency or aspect toward our end there are no records of him more than are extant in this Epistle and howsoever some have opined Justinian notwithstanding effers very rational arguments to vindicate him from the guilt of heresie it beams clearly from the text that he did Idem Menochius and Tirinus parvi facere apostolum se malevolum et infestum praebuisse Johanni Apostolo munus Apostolicum et Iohannis authoritatem contemnere in the words of Petrus which they referre to but there are as bright irradiations that shew us this was not all his sin or inordinateness Petrus also tells us Amat primatum gerere in iis In locum sese in praefecturam illius ecclesiae ingessit observe he intruded he had no call to it eaque praefecturâ delectatur tanquam magno qâ—odam bono gau det praeesse non ut prosit sed quia grande aliquid putat prâ—esse but Iustinian paulo majora canendo sets it to an higher key insolentius et arrogantius principem in ecclesia locum appetiuisse Aretius in sua illa ecclesia solus videriet excellere voluerit he assurâ—ed a power greater than Iohn comparatively but upon the Church objectively he was ambitious to be above Iohn but onely over the people to have preheminence beyond him among them inter cos qui tunc erant in ecclesia as Aquinas or he that bears his name with whom Menochius Tirinus and others consent A Bishop and a Presbyter I finâ— synonymous in that age and to say they read nothing in him over the people above the state of a Bishop or Presbyter and that he was a rigid and imperious Presbyter is an odious aspersion on that Office as if to love to have the preheminence praesse non prodesse as Petrus Se tanquam principem genere as Iustinian insolence arrogance the exercise of tyranny and abuse of the power of the keyes were but the estate of Presbyters and therefore they might be and do all this and yet must not be accounted rigid and imperious Citiùs crimen honestum quà m turpem Catonem effeceris and this is somewhat like that of Valentia who when he could not well deny the Church of Rome to be idolatrous he tells us some idolatry is lawful because the Apostle eter onely condemns abominable idolatries and upon this account Vasquez thinks a man may with good intention worship a Stone or a Stick or a Straw so it seems like courses to those of Diotrephes being not easily to be denied to be taken by some of the Apologists or their friends they must boldly therfore be justified and avowed not to be rigid or imperious If this were so they need not wince
that it is respect of persons and the same reason holds in distributing punishments also so at it here will follow that they rather accept persons who in examining those that may be ignorant except not those that are removed beyond all doubt of their knowledge They think it possible but not so usuall that the Pastor may be exceeded in learning by some of his congregation If it fall not out often yet if it sometime happen that supports the Hypotheâ—is and in such a contingence if Phormio were accounted so delirous to dispute of military discipline before Hannibal it were greater madness for a lesse knowing man to take an overly and suspitious examination of one of more knowledge and some would unhappily think sus fiâ—ly joyned with sacerdos if in such a way sus Minervam But doth learning they ask exempt from obedience No but from a Tyronical or rather a Tyrannical examination and from that obedience which is proper onely for the unlearned Ministers though less learned must be obeyed by more scientious auditors when they speak in his name and upon his embasly in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge but they are not to expect such obedience of any when they speak of themselves and seek their own glory Conscience is the onely forum divinum and in that Court they are not Praetors but publishers and interpreters we call no man Master In Matt. 23.8 Quasi penes quem esset scripturam pro suo arbitrio exponere intelligere as Calvin or ut verum putemus quicquid ille docuerit quia ab illo prosectum est as Estius It is the slavish superstition of the Papists that as Gratian tells us they rather desire to know the ancient institution of Christian Religion from the Popes mouth than from the holy Scripture and they onely inquire what is his pleasure and according to it they order their lives and it is the ambitious tyranny of their Prelates to teach That if the consent of divers Divines affirme such a doctrine to be the sense of the Church the people are bound to believe it though it be a lie as Valentia and they shall commit a meritorious act by believing such a falshood as Biel and Tolet but nobis non licet esse tam indiscrtis they might then justly account and deal with us as ignorants indeed They must be obeyed in what they derive from Gods Word not in what they teach as it were inspiredly and voluntary and in things within the spheare of their power to command and iâ— what is proper and proportioned to the subject whereon the command is imposed but it no less exceeds the limit of our obedience than the extent of our patience to suffer men to bring us into bondage we cannot with these Barbarians in Apâ—ian desire to be rid of liberty and spoile our selves potiore metallis Libertate and to permit them to devour us and take of us even our other patrimony our reputation by an interpretative rendring us simple ignorants and making us per gradum Simconis to commence catechumens when we have long been in the degree of the faithful and to exalt themselves to make us the Basis and to render us as Jacks in Virginals to fall down that their usurped keyes may go up Non bona patientia saith Bernard Cumpossis esse liber servum te permittere fieri nolo dissimules servitutem in quam certe indies dum nescis redigeris hebetatis cordis indicium est propriam non sentire continuam vexationem Vexatio dat intellectum audiâ—ui sed nimia non fuerit nam si sit non intellectum dat sed contemptum The most learned we grant must still be kept under teaching because we know in part but not be put under examination if he knowes in part Every Christian must be a disciple and in Christ Schoole his Ministers are the Ushers and those of the highest form that know most the more do know that they know but little the greatest part as one saith of what we know being the lest part of what we know not and all humane understanding being like the vial of Oyl which Xerxes found in Belus sepulchre which after continual infusions could not be filled up and besides he that is skill'd in the doctrine yet is too often to seek of the application and the use which is to set home by continual exhortation and thereby are the affections to be reconciled to reason and charmed into a compliant subserviency and those sailes for affectus sunt vela arimi to be spread and trim'd and filled with a continual breath to carry on the mind to the port designed but there is no such necessity of our being examined by them the Church must receave edifying and they are given for the edifying of the body of Christ but if they will be wise Master-builders they will not be still laying again the foundation in those that have gone on unto perfection nor level the walls after they have been built to some hight to try how the ground-work was setled for as it is said to be the madness of jealousie to seek that which it is loath to find so it is if not a madness yet a mockery to seek that which is found already A Wife may have more knowledge than her Husband some subjects more policy than their Governours yet this cannnot justifie disobedience nor null authority Neither do we dream that he that hath a richer stock of Knowledge than his Pastor may despicably extrude or renounce him or proudly detract his obedience to Gods Commands in his mouth or presumptuously usurp upon his office and be dealing with his stock and laying it forth in publick teaching but can onely claim his privilege to be exempt of such a derogatory examination and not be apprehended and stopt in his access to the Lords Table as a poor suspected person till he have gotten their Let-pass We do not imagine however it sometimes may be true in some respects Tu major tibi me est aequum parere Menalca and Cyrus was wont to say Neminem debere sâ—scipere principatum nisi melior his in quos susciperet that every superior must be higher by the head than all those subject to him and that it must be among men as it is they say amonst Angels of light that every one of an higher Order is more illuminate than any one of an inferior the title to superiority hath often another root than an absolute deturdigniori but yet an Husband if he will dwell like a man of knowledge must net deport himself toward his Wife as if she were a fool or interpretatively and implicitely make her such if she be a woman of knowledge nor a King that will be just deal with wise men as with idiots and practically make them such for justice partly consists in giving every man his own and to be so despicably examined is not proper to a knowing but an
any such reflex I writ Mathematically and abstracted my lines from all subjects but if they will needs have an inherence to be of the essence of this accident and that this must needs referre and be restrained to certain particular persons and they will rack me to confesse what I should be contented to conceale I shall yet onely say that such a reflection had been no such hainous or piacular offence and that the Hypothesis as I meant it though they will perforce make it a Thesis is as farre from disparagement as impossibility He that by discourse hath poysed and selt the weight of their Shekels will be easie to believe that no great mass need to be laid in the counter-scales to ballance them that some common Shekels may aequiponderate the most of them and some perchance may need their allowance of some grains to make them passe the Standard of the Sanctuary And if in any degree they shall be madded at this sure it is not over-much learning that makes them mad But be their Shekels whatsoever yet let them be like those old Israelitish coins which had on one side stamped the pot of Manna as well as on the other Aarons rod blossoming whereas they are all for the one and forget the other We run in confort with them while they sing that not the largest Shekels I suppose they mean for extent of knowledge BUT THE HOLIEST are best for we preferre the tree of life before that of knowledge since the one alwayes makes to live for ever the other sometime casts out of Paradise But though Gold be more pretious than other metals yet Iron is more regardable at a Muster and when men are examined whether they be ignorant knowledge is that which is chiefly looked after And so also though in the definition of an Orator vir bonus be a better attribute then dicendi peritus yet that which is proper and formall to a good Orator is to be skilfull in the Art of speaking c. And so it is likewise constitutive of a good Minister to have his Shekel of full weight as well as of pure metall and to be learned as well as godly And what they say That knowledge adorned with humility and engaged to advance piety of any what ever measure or extent is after the Standard of the Sanctuary is not true if applied to a Minister for as Gregory pithily He that is the Pastor ought so far to excell his flock generally as compared with him they may seem but of the herd the Well should be of more capacity than the Bucket and for the sheep it is enough to drink there but Jacob ought to be of greater strength to remove the stone and open the well according to Origens allegory but if in themselves or others so few grains of knowledge may make up a Shekel of a passable weight why are they so rigid at other times in the tryall thereof in their Scales and whereas they require that knowledge be adorned wiâ—h humility and engaged to advance piety we shal so far second them as to confesse that where there is a weighty Shekel it depresseth the scale and sets it lower and also that all the gold and silver which hath been brought out of Egypt and all the Ear-rings what ever the ear hath learned ought to be subservient to the building of the Tabernacle and no Shekels as too many are should be like those of Micah converted to the making of a Teraphim but we cannot consent that onely that piety is pure and passable metall which hath the touch of the Tower which they are building or is currant coyn which hath their stamp and mintage or that as Eagles are tryed by looking against the Sun so that it is onely genuine piety which can endure their new light To that of the paper That to suspect the knowledge of the generality of their people is to imply as the Papists have abusively perverted that of Gregory that while the Oxen laboured they were all Asses that fed by them they answer They need a paire of tongs to deal with so odicus a comparison And perchance they need them indeed lest it be felt so hot as to burn their fingers but if non dico nugas esse sed esse puto if they doe not expressly call them Asses as they implicitly call them Dogs and Swine which is worse yet virtually and practically they judge them such and deale with them as if they were no other and make them such by an interpretative declaring them to be so as in common acception they are said to make a man a foole that use him as if he were one as also magnifacere is but magnum dicore for if they think them to be of knowledge and understanding why do they doubtingly examine them Who enquires after that whereof he is already satisfied if they suppose there is reason to bring them under such a suspitious tryall then they are not perswaded but that they are at least may be these simple ones whereof the Asse is the hieroglyphick and if they did not imply them to be Asses they yet hold forth themselves as Lyons that will have all beasts of the Forrest others as well as Asses to prostrate themselves in such obeysance But perchance the quarrell may be that as the Pope said of England Etiam asinus meus recalcitrat so the Asse will no longer lye down under his burden and sure as it is said nothing will hold the water of Styx that perforates all other things save the hoofe of an Asse so perhaps it may be well supposed that this doctrine of submission to their trials can be onely proper to those whom they suppose that animall may emblem But they will leave the comparison to those from whom it came Popish Priests and Eâ—iscopall spirits who advanced themselves by the ignorance of the Laity And indeed in the Church of Rome this was among the Arcana Imperiâ— and part of the mystery of iniquity too and as to vent false wares they darken the shop and to rob the house extinguish the candle and to reign like Nahash put out the right eye so did they upon this account both canonize ignorance which Hosius affirmes is in most things best of all and to know nothing is to know all things and by inhibiting the Scriptures wherwith not onely great Doctors of Physick were unacquainted as Julius Alexandrinus Physician to the Emperour Charles the fift heaâ—ing Divines alleaging S Paul replied Profectò oportet me aliquando legere vestrum istum Paulum but Bishops themselves were ignorant of them as Justus Jonas tells us of one that reading the Bible and being asked what book it was answered He could not tell but it was a book contrary to their Religion and deterring men from reading thereof Thyraus saith He knew some men possest with the Divel onely because they reasoned and disputed of the Scriptures and anciently for of late in divers things Rome
it self is become a reformed Church neglecting all other wayes of teaching in effect save reading of the Legends to make men laugh which Beleth commendeth and asserting that if a man were asked of the greatest Articles of the faith he might sufficiently say he could not tell but believes as the Church doth and that would save him but that their Church is that people which obey the Pope who is Christs Vicar must be explicitly believed But we cannot henceforth with that confidence lay this at their door when they will be apt to retort it back by recrimination and tell us that notwithstanding what ever we judge of them who know them not yet their people are not so ignorant as we confess ours to be whom we have better knowledge of whereof one of an hundred by our own account is not capable to partake of the Sacrament and though Campion said most falsely of our Ministers Eorum ministris nihil vilius yet they will say with colour of truth Eorum plebe nihil vilius if they are so wretched and unworthy Erubui gremiòque pudor dejccit ocellos Whether Episcopal spitits were parcell guilt with this close designe I shall say little in their condemnation or defence but this is manifest that many of them were like the fish called Lucerna whose tongue Pliny saith did shine as a torch so did their tongues cast forth light and they shined by preaching Ut pura nocturno renidet Luna mari Gnidiúsve Gyges And as the same Author saith that those calami or reeds whereof paper was made yeilded flowers whereof crowns were formed so their calami or pens put to paper brought forth such flourishing works as shall crown their names with immortall honor and though they are fain and gone yet the monuments of their learning which help to make others learned shall stand for ever nec Jovis ira nec ignis Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas It is true that some of them when they lighted the Lamps did not burn incense they having no good odor for their indiscrete Ordinations setting up rusn candles and sometime smoaking snuffes and withall blowing out and puffing off some clear lights of the Sanctuary and so might in this consideration seem to favour ignorance as he that gives a blind or drives away a good guide doth causally or antecedently tumble into the ditch but this was paucorum crimen and nevertheless there was not darkness upon the face of the deep before the other lights were created in the firmament of this Heaven but where is Plato's Num-nam ego talis sum rather it is true what Salvian tells us Multi horrent sed paucissimi evitant in aliis quippe borrent quod in se semper admittunt mirum in modum accusatores ecrundem criminum excusatores execrantor publicè quod occultè agunt per hec dum damnare se caeteros putant ipsos se magis propriâ ammadversione condemnant It was said of Isocrates and Quintilian That they pleaded not yet made many Orators but contrariwise though others do teach yet have they not made others become no teachers and left several places without teaching and so consequently furthered and promoved ignorance Let them be lights in the firmament yet they are but topical starrs and their beams and influences are limited and confined to certain places and in many other Horizons the starrs are as thin set as about the Southern pole and I doubt others beside the Bishops may be culpable in an accidental and consecutive diffusing of dark ignorance by casting down many starrs to the ground and stamping upon them so as more than a third part of them in some places is darkened and let them put their hands into their bosome and see if they come not forth leprous by having been hands in this if not per se tamen per alios if not directly and immediately yet whether not by the guilt of consilium consensus palpo recursus Nutans non obstans c. according to the several wayes of partaking sins and so have been some part of the tail that hath drawn this third part of the starrs of Heaven and hath cast them to the earth However those starrs were not pure in their sight and some gave not their light yet neither are all those in Heaven free from spots yet are permitted to shine and some apparently shine not to us yet doubtless have their light and influence and if some men have forgot that Quà m saepe veniam qui negavit petit and that Eutropius was haled by Chrysostom from that Sanctuary which he would have had the Emperour shut up yet they should remember that if the lights burn dimme it is a wildness instead of snuffing to put them out The Indians when they have no candles are glad of an Cucuji where there are Ministers though perchance non Ex meliore luto nor nati faelicibus ovis yet there is a face of publick worship a convening at the places appointed for it men are kept in the recognition of their duty taken off and inhibited from other tentations not onely in losse of time negatively in doing nothing but positively in doing evill but loss of acquaintance with Ordinances and degenerating into a kind of paganisme All cannot resort to places very distant to supply the want in their proper Churches and sometimes the distance is so wide as few or none can be accomodate for recourse In a twilight a man can better see his way than in the dark and if the prodigall had not a while sustained himself with husks he would not have lived to have eaten his fathers bread Let the stinking snuffs be trodden out but my weakness is apt to think that better suffer weak lights in every angle than set up a few in a vast room which must needs have many corners under much darkness better suffer some tares than to root up much wheat and perchance onely to change the weed but not cleanse the field as where the corne stands thin weeds will rise either empty husks who as Hierom speaks loqui nesciunt tacere non possunt docéntque Scripturas quas non intelligunt priùs imperitorum magistri quà m doctorum discipuli or as Bernard saith Priùs effundere quà m infundi velint loqui quà m audire paratiores docere prompti quod nunquam didicerunt or else venemous and contagious plants qui pro alicujus temporalis commodi maximè gloriae principatusque sui causa falsas novas opiniones gignunt vel sequuntur as Augustine We should like it well if as Pacuvius told his Capuans concerning the Senators they could be provided of new before they satisfied their anger upon the old but else we think it better to spare them for the time in hope of amendment hereafter and that as Aristides advised Laconico Perfico more parva multis minora majoribus condonarent A good Master said that Father may be honored in