Ch. Ixviii. 7. 372 Proposed Method of dealing with Recusants, BOOK V. always definite, and when that they require is done they go no farther, whereupon sundry ill-affected persons to save themselves from danger of laws pretend obedience, albeit inwardly they carry still the same hearts which they did before, by means whereof it falleth out that receiving unworthily the blessed sacrament at our hands, they eat and drink their own damnation; it is for remedy of this mischief here determined 6o, doubts which existed as to the con- 60 T. C. lib. i. p. 167. [132, 133.] "If the place of the fifth to the "Corinthians do forbid that we "should have any familiarity with "notorious offenders, it doth much more forbid that they should be "received to the Communion. And "therefore papists being such as "which are notoriously known to "hold heretical opinions ought not "to be admitted much less compelled "to the Supper. For seeing that "our Saviour Christ did institute "his supper amongst his disciples "and those only which were as St. "Paul speaketh within, it is evident "that the papists being without, and foreigners and strangers from the "Church of God ought not to be "received if they would offer them"selves: and that minister that "shall give the Supper of the Lord "to him which is known to be a papist and which hath never made any clear renouncing of popery "with which he hath been defiled "doth profane the table of the Lord, "and doth give the meat that is prepared for the children unto dogs, "and he bringeth into the pasture "which is provided for the sheep, " swine and unclean beasts, contrary "to the faith and trust that ought "to be in a steward of the Lord's "house as he is. For albeit that I "doubt not but many of those "which are now papists pertain to "the election of God, which God also in his good time will call to the 66 66 knowledge of his truth: yet notwithstanding they ought to be un"to the minister and unto the "Church touching the ministering "of sacraments as strangers and 66 as unclean beasts.....The mi"nistering of the holy sacraments "unto them is a declaration and "seal of God's favour and reconci"liation with them, and a plain "preaching partly that they be "washed already from their sins, "partly that they are of the house"hold of God and such as the Lord "will feed to eternal life, which is "not lawful to be done unto those "which are not of the household of "faith. And therefore I conclude "that the compelling of papists un"to the communion, and the dis missing and letting of them go "when as they be to be punished "for their stubbornness in popery 66 (with this condition, if they will "receive the communion) is very "unlawful, when as although they "would receive it yet they ought "to be kept back till such time as by their religious and gospel like behaviour," &c. [Comp. T. C. i. 34. ap. Whitg. Def. 178. Whitgift in his answer had pleaded against popular election of bishops, that the Church is now full of papists, "atheists, and such like." T. C. replies, "Now you bring in papists, 66 idolaters, and atheists, which are "not only filthy but also poisoned "and venomed beasts. I am not ignorant of that distinction which "saith that there be in the Church "which are not of the Church; and "those are hypocrites as is before "said: but I would gladly learn of 66 you, what scripture there is to prove that idolaters and papists "and atheists are in the Church, r objectionable, as tending to encourage Jesuitical Craft. 373 that whom the law of the realm doth punish unless they com- BOOK V. municate, such if they offer to obey law, the Church notwith- Ch. lxviii. 8. standing should not admit without probation before had of their gospel-like behaviour. [8.] Wherein they first set no time how long this supposed probation must continue; again they nominate no certain judgment the verdict whereof shall approve men's behaviour to be gospel-like; and that which is most material, whereas they seek to make it more hard for dissemblers to be received into the Church than law and polity as yet hath done, they make it in truth more easy for such kind of persons to wind themselves out of the law and to continue the same they were. The law requireth at their hands that duty which in conscience doth touch them nearest, because the greatest difference between us and them is the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, whose name in the service of our communion we celebrate with due honour, which they in the error of their mass profane. As therefore on our part to hear mass were an open departure from that sincere profession wherein we stand, so if they on the other side receive our communion, they give us the strongest pledge of fidelity that man can demand. What their hearts are God doth know. But if they which mind treachery to God and man 61 shall once apprehend this 66 "time as they declare manifest to- 61 [This expression refers perhaps "when St. Paul calleth all such crease the punishment, until such great danger in many others, who "sometimes do come to the church, and yet be papists, both in their "inward hearts, and in their out"ward actions and conversations, "refusing to receive the communion ; " and in every thing else as ill as the "worst. Of which there be also "two sorts. The one goeth to the "church for saving of the penalties "of thirteen score pounds a year: "yet his wife and whole family, or "most of them, continue resolute "recusants and harbour traitors. 374 Errors of those who would repel conforming Papists. BOOK V. advantage given them, whereby they may satisfy law in preCh. lxviii. 9. Itending themselves conformable (for what can law with reason or justice require more?) and yet be sure the Church will accept no such offer, till their gospel-like behaviour be allowed; after that our own simplicity hath once thus fairly eased them from sting of law, it is to be thought they will learn the mystery of gospel-like behaviour when leisure serveth them. And so while without any cause we fear to profane sacraments, we shall not only defeat the purpose of most wholesome laws, but lose or wilfully hazard those souls from which the likeliest means of full and perfect recovery are by our indiscretion withheld. For neither doth God thus bind us to dive into men's consciences, nor can their fraud and deceit hurt any man but themselves. To him they seem such as they are, but to us they must be taken for such as they seem. In the eye of God they are against Christ that are not truly and sincerely with him, in our eyes they must be received as with Christ that are not to outward show against him. The case of impenitent and notorious sinners is not like unto theirs whose only imperfection is error severed from pertinacy, error in appearance content to submit itself to better instruction, error so far already cured as to crave at our hands that sacrament the hatred and utter refusal whereof was the weightiest point wherein heretofore they swerved and went astray. [9.] In this case therefore they cannot reasonably charge us with remiss dealing, or with carelessness to whom we impart the mysteries of Christ, but they have given us manifest occasion to think it requisite that we earnestly advise rather and exhort them to consider as they ought their sundry oversights, first in equalling undistinctly crimes with errors as touching force to make uncapable of this sacrament; secondly in suffering indignation at the faults of the church of Rome to blind and withhold their judgments from seeing that which withal they should acknowledge, concerning so much never "The other sort go to the church a great priest as hath episcopal "authority, to the end they may "the better, and with the less suspi"cion, serve the turn of their cause "catholic."] Fewness of Communicants: not the Church's Fault. 375 Ch. lxviii. 10. theless still due to the same church, as to be held and reputed BOOK V. a part of the house of God, a limb of the visible Church of Christ; thirdly in imposing upon the Church a burden to enter farther into men's hearts and to make a deeper search of their consciences than any law of God or reason of man enforceth; fourthly and lastly in repelling under colour of longer trial such from the mysteries of heavenly grace, as are both capable thereof by the laws of God for any thing we hear to the contrary, and should in divers considerations be cherished according to the merciful examples and precepts whereby the gospel of Christ hath taught us towards such to shew compassion, to receive them with lenity and all meekness, if any thing be shaken in them to strengthen it, not to quench with delays and jealousies that feeble smoke of conformity which seemeth to breathe from them, but to build wheresoever there is any foundation, to add perfection unto slender beginnings, and that as by other offices of piety even so by this very food of life which Christ hath left in his Church not only for preservation of strength but also for relief of weakness. [10.] But to return to our ownselves in whom the next thing severely reproved is the paucity 62 of communicants, if they require at communions frequency we wish the same, knowing how acceptable unto God such service is when multitudes cheerfully concur unto it 63; if they encourage men thereunto, we also (themselves acknowledge it64) are not utterly forgetful to do the like; if they require some public coaction 65 for remedy of that wherein by milder and softer means little good is done, they know our laws and statutes provided in that behalf, whereunto whatsoever convenient 66 62 T. C. lib. i. p. 147. [116.] 63 2 Chron. Xxx. 13; Psalm cxxii. 1. 64 [T. C. i. 117. al. 148. "It may "be objected, that in this point the "Book of Common Prayer is not in fault, which doth not only not for"bid that all the Church should re"ceive together, but also by a good "and godly exhortation moveth "those that be present that they "should not depart....It is true "that it doth not forbid, and that "there is godly exhortation for that Ch. lxviii. 10.. 376 Communicants not to be repelled because they are few. BOOK V. help may be added more by the wisdom of man, what cause have we given the world to think that we are not ready to hearken to it, and to use any good mean of sweet compulsion 66 to have this high and heavenly banquet largely furnished? Only we cannot so far yield as to judge it convenient that the holy desire of a competent number should be unsatisfied, because the greater part is careless and undisposed to join with them. Men should not (they say) be permitted a few by themselves to communicate when so many are gone away, because this sacrament is a token of our conjunction with our brethren67, and therefore by communicating apart from them we make an apparent show of distraction. I ask then on which side unity is broken, whether on theirs that depart or on theirs who being left behind do communicate? First in the one it is not denied but that they may have reasonable causes of departure, and that then even they are delivered from just blame. Of such kind of causes two are allowed 68, namely danger of impairing health and necessary business requiring our presence otherwhere. And may not a third cause, which is unfitness at the present time, detain us as lawfully back as either of these two? True it is that we cannot hereby altogether excuse ourselves, for that we ought to prevent this and do not 69. But |