The right of dominion, and property of liberty, whether natural, civil, or religious. Wherein are comprised the begining and continuance of dominion by armes; the excellency of monarchy, and the necessity of taxes, with their moderation. As also the necessity of his Highness acceptation of the empire, averred and approved by presidents of præterit ages, with the firm settlement of the same against all forces whatsoever. / By M.H. Master in Arts, and of the Middle Temple.

CAP. VI.

1. Knowing and obstinate Here∣ticks are after the first or second ad∣monition to be rejected.

2. What Excommunication is.

3. It was rarely executed in the Primitive Church.

4. The abuse of it by the Pope and Prelacy, hath caused it to be neglected in most reformed Churches, and to be utterly abrogated in ours.

THere are Hereticks Scientes, who know themselves to be Hereticks: and who convinced by arguments as Whitaker, persist in the defence of heresie: either for some temporal commodity, or desire of vain glory: And who being carried

away with selfe-love, ambition, or po∣pular applause, build the City of the De∣vil upon false and new opinions: not respecting the truth but their positions, because their own inventions, whom Au∣gustine onely placeth in his Catalogue of Hereticks: Such Hereticks after the first and second admonition are to be avoided and rejected, as the Apostle prescribeth. 1. Tim. 3 10. who offend not from ignorance and infirmity, but from voluntary malice and obstinate industry.

From the admonishment of such a one we are to abstain, and to leave him to him∣selfe as one condemned by himselfe, as the Apostle speaketh, and Turtullian in∣terpreteth, Elegit sibi in quo damnetur, He hath chosen to himselfe his own damna∣tion.

Excommunication is a separation from the Communion and Congregation of the Church: and of it is understoood that of Matthew, If he shall not hear the Church, let him be as an Heathen and a Pub∣lican; whose body as the Apostle speak∣eth, is delivered to Satan: That is, put out of the Church, out of which Satan is Lord and Master; as among the Jewes greivous offenders aposynagogi fiant, were cast out of the Church, which was to shun

their Communion, as the Jewes did the Samaritans.

Neither doth Anathema the greater and more greivous Excommunication, signi∣fie much more; of which in the Gospel we have no example, onely a general Precept 1 Cor. 13. Whosoever loveth not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be an Anathema: which by the Glossary is expounded, Esse execrationem extra Communionem honorum us∣que ad adventum domini: To be a vehement spitting out from the Communion of the good, until the comming of the Lord; and it is rendered by Hesychius 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 execrable, and unsoci∣able, as one unworthy the society of good men: and according to the Greek Original, signifieth Deo dicatum, dedicated to God, and so separated from the Com∣munion of men for his impiety, that he is onely left to Gods judgement: All which onely sets forth unto us a separa∣tion from the Communion of the good, & the dereliction of them so separated to the judgement of the Lord: Deorum enim injurias Diis curae esse; for offences against God are by him to be censured: Upon which ground Tiberius dismissed one to the sentence of Jupiter, who was accused for a contempt against Jupiter:

and all heretical opinions are properly of∣fences against God, and therefore to be re∣ferred to his judgement: & as the Civilians in the like case, Satis deum ultorem habent, have God a sufficient revenger; and how such errors shall be punished at the day of of Judgement, nemo potest scire nisi Judex, saith Salvianus, no man can know but the Judge. And therefore doth Christ, Mar. 6.12. referr the judgement of such as re∣fuse his Doctrine, until the day of Judge∣ment: and whosoever, as Mr. Ashkam, shall think himselfe competent to judge of it here, is nimis Curiosus in aliena repub∣lica.

Excommunication was rarely execu∣ted in the Primitive Church, of which we have but two examples in the Gospel: the one against the Incestuous one, whom Paul commanded to be delivered to Sa∣tan: a sin abhorred of the Heathens, and severely punished by them. The other against blasphemers, Hymeneus and Alex∣ander, whom Paul also delivered to Satan. An offence mortal under the Law, Levit. 24. and dangerous under the Gospel, if not repented of: Math. 12.31. And of all offences the highest, because it is an impiety against God himselfe, whereas other offences are transgressions against

the Law. And this was Pauls rod of Correction which he rarely used; so rare a censure was Excommunication in the purest times: For the excesse of which St. John condemneth Diotrephes in casting his Brethren out of the Church.

But how Excommunication the last, and greivous punishment of the Church, as Mr. Whitgift calleth it, hath been abu∣sed under Popery and Prelacy, is notori∣ously evident: and especially by the Pope, whose continual practice was to inflict it on any one as a Delinquent, either in matters of Faith, or Manners; or by it to presse men to restore things lost, and to pay their debts within a cer∣tain time: and sometimes without any cognisance of the cause. Kings and Em∣perours were most obnoxious to this cen∣sure, who being Excommunicated as the Pope pretendeth, could not without sin∣ning exercise their Iurisdiction: and what Acts and Sentences during the Ex∣communication they pronounced, were null and void; by which rule he also de∣posed them: From whose institutions the Prelates originally derive their Iu∣risdiction; and in their discipline doe not much vary, setting the Papal Altitude and Latitude aside: and therefore was

our Arch-Prelate stiled Alterius orbis Papa: who likewise transgressed in the excessive abuse of excommunications, as Whitgift a Patron of Praelacy acknow∣ledgeth in these words; That excom∣munication, the last and greatest punish∣ment in the Church, is commonly used in many trifling matters, and therefore is commonly neglected and contemned: I pray God, saith he, restore it to its first pu∣rity: neither was by either of them the pious end of Excommunication respe∣cted, which was that for shame of the se∣paration, the separated should be drawn to repentance: as the Apostle saith of the Incestuous one, That his flesh may be destroyed, and the spirit saved in the day of the Lord Jesus: and also of the blasphe∣mers, That they may learn not to blaspheme; whereas their ultimate drift was to heap up monyes and inrich themselves by for∣mal Absolutions and pecuniary Satis∣factions, supposing gaine to be godlinesse, and through coveteousnesse by fained words to make merchandize of mens souls, as the Apostle speaketh: For such and like abominable abuses, the Popes Excommunications are slighted, and de∣spised of most Princes, and the Papal and Prelatical Iurisdicton neglected in all

Reformed Churches; and in our Church utterly abolished: as it was resolved in the late Parliament by the declaration of the Lords and Commons in answer to the Scotch papers, the fourth of March 1647. That the discipline of Ecclesiastical cen∣sures, and other punishments for matters in Religion are disclaimed, as grounded on Popish and Preletical Principles, and not to be revived again under any I∣mage and shape whatsoever.

Notes

• Qui argu∣mentis convicti persistunt tamem in heresie propugnan∣da. Whit. de sacra script. l. 1. c. 2. Grot. de Jur. Bel. & pac. f. 505
• C. 8.
• 1. Tim.
• Tac. An. 1. l. 1.
• Grotius de Jur. b. et p.
• 1 Cor. 5.
• 1 Tim. 1.20.
• Tholos. Synt. Jur. Ʋniv. l. 33. c. 12. contra ipsa deitatem impie agis.
• In his Adue.
• Pier. de Moul. Buc. de la foy. f. 506.
• In his Ad∣monition.
• 1 Tim. 5.
• 1 Tim. 1.20.
• 1 Tim. 5.6.