on, then he must make a revocation of that word, "I
deny an institution, I assent to a prudence." For the tables were turned
with the Zurich divines; they assented to an institution; they denied a
prudence; they held an affirmative precept for excommunication, but that
it doth not bind _ad semper_, that the thing is not at all times, nor in
all places necessary; that weighty inconveniences may warrant the
superseding of it.

The reverend brother brings another testimony out of Aretius against
suspension from the sacrament: "And further (saith he) for this grand
desired power, suspension from sacrament, these are his words," &c. A
testimony three ways falsified: 1. Aretius speaks not at all in that place
of the power or duty of church officers, of which suspension is a part,
but he speaks of private Christians, and what is incumbent to them. 2. He
speaks of separation, not of suspension from the sacrament; that a man is
not bound to withdraw and lie off from the sacrament, because every one
who is to communicate with him is not in his opinion a saint. 3. He
speaketh against separation from both word and sacrament, because of the
mixture of good and bad in hearing and in communicating; but scandalous
sinners are invited to, not suspended from the hearing of the word,
wherefore take Aretius's(1358) words as they are, and then let the
reverend brother consider what he hath gained.

What hath this now to do with church officers' power of suspension from
the sacrament?

Observe another testimony which he addeth out of Augustine, _lib. de Fide,
Excommunicatio debet supplere locum visibilis gladii_, which he Englisheth
thus: "Excommunication comes in only to supply the want of the civil
sword." But how comes in your _only_, Sir? Augustine saith no such thing.
And when I have expunged that word, I must tell you farther, that I can
find no such passage in Augustine's book _de Fide_; but I find somewhat to
this purpose in another book of his, which is entitled _De Fide et
Operibus_, a book which he wrote against the admission of such persons to
baptism, as being instructed in the faith, are, notwithstanding, still
scandalous in their lives (which, by the way, will hold _a fortiori_, for
the exclusion of notorious scandalous sinners from the Lord's supper; for
they who ought not to be admitted to the sacrament of initiation, ought
much less to be admitted to the sacrament of confirmation). Now because
divers scriptures speak of a