pardon. Indeed every single act of penance does something towards it, but why something should be enjoined that is not sufficient, and that falls infinitely short of the end of its designation, though the church may use her liberty, yet it is not easy to understand the reason. But I leave this to the consideration of those who are concerned in governments public, or in the private conduct of souls; to whom I earnestly and humbly recommend it: and I add this only; that when the ancient churches did absolve and communicate dying penitents, though but newly returned from sin; they did it de bene esse, or with a hope it might do some good, and because they thought it a case of necessity, and because there was no time left to do better: but when they did as well as they could, they could not tell what God would do: and though the church did well, it may be it was very ill with the souls departed. But because that is left to God, it is certain some things were done upon pious confidence and venture, for which there was no promise in the gospel.

That which the church is to take care of is, that all her children be sufficiently taught what are the just measures of preparation and worthy disposition to these divine mysteries; and that she admits none of whom she can tell that they are not worthy; such as are notorious adulterers, homicides, incestuous, perjurers, habitually peevish to evil effects, and permanently angry (for this I find reckoned amongst the primitive catalogues of persons to be excluded. from the communion), rapines, theft, sacrilege, false-witness, pride, covetousness and envy. It would be hard to reduce this rule to practice in all these instances, unless it be by consent and voluntary submission of penitent persons. But that which I remark is this: that proud persons and the covetous, the envious and the angry were esteemed fit to be excommunicate; that is, infinitely unfit to be admitted to the blessed sacrament; and that by the rules of their discipline they were to do many actions of public and severe penance and mortifications before they would admit them.

Now then the case is this. They did esteem more things to be required to the integrity of repentance, and God not to be so soon reconciled, and the devil not so soon dispossessed, and men's resolutions not so fit to be trusted, and more to be required to pardon than confession and the pronouncing absolution; all this otherwise than we do; and therefore so long as they did conduct repentances, they required it as it should be; being sure that no repentance that was joined with hope and charity could be too much, but it might quickly be too little; and therefore although the church may take as little

Si permansissemus in illa munditia quæ nobis per baptismum data est, vere felices essemus; sed non permansimus; cecidimus enim per nostram culpam, non solum in peccata, sed etiam in crimina, propter quæ peccatores ab ecclesia sepa

rantur; qualia sunt, homicidia, adulteria, fornicationes, sacrilegia, rapinæ, furta, falsa testimonia, superbia, invidia, avaritia, diutina iracundia, ebrietas assidua. -Fulbert. Carnot., serm. ii. ad populum. [Magn. bibl. vett. patr., tom. xi. p. 34 E.]

as she please for a testimonial of repentance, and suppose the rest is right though it be not signified; yet when she either in public or in private is to manage repentances, she must use no measure but that which will procure pardon, and extinguish both the guilt and dominion of sin. The first may be of some use in government; but of little avail to souls, and to their eternal interest: therefore in the first she may use her liberty and give herself measures in the latter she hath no other but what are given her by the nature of repentance, and its efficacy and order to pardon, and the designs of God, for the reformation of our souls and the extermination of sin.

SECTION VI.

WHETHER MAY EVERY MINISTER OF THE CHURCH AND CURATE OF SOULS REJECT IMPENITENT PERSONS, OR ANY CRIMINALS, FROM THE HOLY SACRAMENT, UNTIL THEMSELVES BE SATISFIED OF THEIR REPENTANCE AND AMENDS?

SEPARATION of sinners from the blessed sacrament was either done upon confession and voluntary submission of the penitent, or by public conviction and notoriety. Every minister of religion can do the first, for he that submits to my judgment, does choose my sentence; and if he makes me judge, he is become my subject in a voluntary government: and therefore I am to judge for him when it is fit that he should communicate: only, if when he hath made me judge, he refuses to obey my counsel, he hath dissolved my government, and therefore will receive no further benefit by me. But concerning the latter of these, a separation upon public conviction or notoriety; that requires an authority that is not precarious and changeable. Now this is done two ways; either by authority forbidding, or by authority restraining and compelling; that is, by the word of our proper ministry dissuading him that is unworthy from coming, and threatening him with divine judgments if he does come; or else rejecting of him, in case that he fears not those threatenings but persists in his desires of having it.

Now of the first of these, every minister of the word and sacraments is a competent minister; for all that minister to souls are to tell them of their dangers, and by all the effects of their office to present them pure and spotless unto God; the seers must take care that the people may see, lest by their blindness they fall into the bottomless pit. And when the curates of souls have declared the will of God in this instance and denounced His judgments to unworthy h [See vol. iv. p. 589, note.-The ther sense is not precarious; see Barrow, authority of our spiritual guides in one serm. lviii. init.] sense is precarious (see above); in ano

communicants, and told to all that present themselves who are worthy and who are not, they have delivered their own souls; all that remains is, that every person take care concerning his own affairs.

For the second, viz., denying to minister to criminals though demanding it with importunity; that is an act of prudence and caution in some cases, and of authority in others. When it is matter of caution, it is not a punishment but a medicine; according to those excellent words of S. Cyprian', "To be cast out," viz., for a time, from the communion, "is a remedy and a degree towards the recovery of our spiritual health :" and because it is no more, it cannot be pretended to be any man's 'right' to do it; but it may be in his 'duty' when he can; but therefore this must depend upon the consent of the penitent. For a physician must not in despite of a man cut off his leg to save his life: the sick man may choose whether he shall or no. But sometimes it is an act of authority; as when the people have consented to such a discipline, or when the secular arm by assisting the ecclesiastical hath given to it a power of mixed jurisdiction; that is, when the spiritual power of paternal regiment which Christ hath given to His ministers the supreme curates, is made operative upon the persons and external societies of men. Now of this power the bishops are the prime and immediate subjects, partly under Christ and partly under kings; and of this power, inferior ministers are capable by delegation, but no otherwise; they being but deputies and vicars in the cure of souls under their superiors, from whom they have received their order and their charge. And thus I suppose we are to understand the rubric before our communion office; which warrants the curate not to suffer open and notorious' evil livers by whom the congregation is offended, and those between whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign, to be partakers of the Lord's table. In the first, the case is of notorious criminals, and is to be understood of a notoriety of law; and in this the curate is but a publisher of the judge's sentence: in the second, the criminal is ipso facto excommunicate; and therefore in this the curate is but the minister of the sentence of the law or at least hath a delegate authority to pass the church's sentence in a matter that is evident. But this is seldom practised otherwise than by rejecting such persons by way of denunciation of the divine judgments and if it be so understood, the curate hath done his duty which God requires; and I believe the laws of England will suffer him to do no more by his own authority.

But this is to be reduced to practice by the following measures, 1. Every man is to be presumed fit, that is not known to be unfit; and he that is not a public criminal, is not to be supposed unworthy to communicate. It may be he is; but that himself only

i Nam ejici remedium est et gradus ad recuperandam sanitatem.-[pseudo

Cypr.] de dupl. martyr. [append. p. 43.]
See Duct. Dubit. lib. iii. capp. 3, 4.

knows, and he can only take care; but no man is to be prejudiced by imperfect and disputable principles, by conjectures and other men's measures, by the rules of sects and separate communities: and if a man may belong to God and himself not know it, he may do so when his curate knows it not.

2. No man may be separated from the communion for any private sin, vehemently or lightly suspected. This censure must not pass but when the crime is manifest and notorious, that is, when it is delated and convict in any public assembly, civil or ecclesiastical, or is evident to a multitude, or confessed. This is the express doctrine of the church in S. Austin's' time, who affirms that the ecclesiastics have no power to make separations of sinners not confessed nor convict. And besides many others, it relies upon this prudential consideration, which Linwood hath well observed, "Every Christian hath a right in the receiving the eucharist, unless he loses it by deadly sin: therefore when it does not appear in the face of the church that such an one hath lost his right, it ought not in the face of the church to be denied to him; otherwise a licence would be given to evil priests according to their pleasure with this punishment to afflict whom they list."

3. Every sinner that hath been convict, or hath confessed, and affirms himself to be truly penitent, is to be believed, where by the laws of the church he is not bound to pass under any public discipline. For no man can tell but that he says true; and because every degree of repentance is accepted to some dispositions and proportions of pardon; and God hath not told us the just period of His being reconciled, and His mercy is divisible as our return, and unknown to us; he that knows that without repentance he eats damnation, and professes upon that very account that he is penitent, may be taught as many more things as the curate please, or as he is supposed to need; but must not be rejected from the holy communion, if he cannot be persuaded. For this judgment is secret, and is to pass between God and the soul alone; for because no man can tell, no man can judge; and the curate who knows not how it is, cannot give a definite" sentence.

4. But if there come any accidental obligation upon criminals; as if by the laws of a church to which they are subjected, it be ap

Omnibus episcopis et presbyteris interdicimus segregare aliquem a sacra communione, antequam causa monstretur propter quam sanctæ regulæ hoc fieri jubent. [Authent. seu Novell. Justin.] collat. ix. tit. 15. [leg. 6.] De sanctissimis episcopis. c. 11. [In corp. jur. civil., ed. Gothofred. col. 255.]

I Nos a communione prohibere quenquam non possumus,.. nisi aut sponte

confessum, aut in aliquo sive sæculari sive ecclesiastico judicio nominatum atque convictum.-Homil. 1. [al. cccli. cap. 4.] et de medicina pœnit. [? scil. in eadem homilia] super illud 1 Cor. v. 'Si quis frater.' [tom. v. coll. 1359 F, 1360.] [Provinc., lib. iii. tit. 23.] de celebrat. missar. [ad cap. 'Altissimus, et infra.'-p. 233. fol. Oxon. 1679.]

m

[definitive,' B.]

pointed they shall give public evidence and amends; they are to be judged by those measures, and are not to be restored ordinarily, till they have by public measures proved their repentance. This relies upon all those grounds upon which obedience to ecclesiastical rulers is built.

5. It is lawful for the guides of souls to admit to the communion such persons whom they believe not to be fit and worthily prepared, if they will not be persuaded to retire. It is evident in the case of kings and all supreme powers, and great communities, and such who being rejected will be provoked into malice and persecution; "such indeed the church sometimes tolerates", lest being provoked they disturb the people of God: but what does it profit them not to be cast out of the assemblies of the godly, if they deserve to be cast out? To deserve ejection is the highest evil: and to no purpose is he mingled in the congregations of the faithful, who is excluded from the society of God and the mystical body of Christ." And it is also evident in the societies of the church; which we know by the words of Christ and by experience, are a mixed multitude; and since the scripture does not exempt a secret sinner from the communion, why wilt thou endeavour to except him? It is S. Austin's argument. And who shall reject every man that he believes to be proud, or covetous, or envious? Who shall define pride, or convince a single person of a proud heart, or of his latent envy? and who shall give rules by which every single man that is to blame can be convinced of covetousness? If it be permitted to the discretion of the parish priest; you erect a gibbet, and a rack by which he shall be enabled to torment any man; and you give him power to slander or reproach all his neighbours; if you go about to give him measures, you shall never do it wisely or piously; for no rules can be sufficient to convince any proud man; and if you make the parish curate judge of these rules, you had as good leave it to his discretion; for he will use them as he please. And after all, you shall never have all the people good; and if not, you shall certainly have them hypocrites; and therefore it cannot be avoided but unfit persons will be admitted: for since the kingdom of grace is within us, and God's chosen ones are His secret ones, and He only knows who are His, it will be strange that visible sacraments should be given only to an invisible.

• See Rule of Conscience, lib. iii. capp. 1 et 4.

S. Cyprian. sive quicunque sit auctor libri de duplici martyrio.-[p. 199 supra.]

Ad hoc enim altare quod nunc in ecclesia est in terra positum, . . ad mysteriorum divinorum signacula celebranda, multi etiam scelerati possunt accedere: quoniam Deus commendat in hoc

tempore patientiam suam, ut in futuro exserat severitatem suam... Ad illud autem altare quo præcursor pro nobis introiit Jesus, quo caput ecclesiæ præcessit, membris cæteris secuturis, nullus eorum accedere poterit, de quibus dixit apostolus, Quoniam qui talia agunt regnum Dei non possidebunt.-S. Aug. homil. 1. [al. serm. cccli. cap. 4.—tom. v. col. 1357 A.]