Of excommunication & other Censures
THe Censures
the church, (1) are appointed by Christ,
for the preventing, removing, [21] & healing of offences in
the Church; for the reclayming & gayning of offending brethren:
for the deterring others from the like offeces: for purging out
the leaven which may infect the whole lump: for vindicating (2)
the honour of Christ, & of his church, & the holy profession
of the gospel: & for preventing the wrath of God, that may
justly fall upon the church, if they should suffer his covenant,
and the seales therof, to be prophaned by notorious & obstinate
offenders.
2 If a offence be private
(3) (one brother offending another) the offender is
to go and
acknowledge his repentance for it unto his offended brother, who is
then to forgive him; but if the offender
neglect or refuse to do it, the brother offended is to go, and convince
and admonish him of it, between
themselves privately if therefore the offender be brought to repent of
his offence, the admonisher has won his
brother: but if the offender hear not his brother, the brother of the
offended is to take with him one or two
more, (verse 18,) that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every
word may be established, (whether the
word of admonition, if the offender receive it; or the word of
complaint, if he refuse it,) for if he refuse it,
(verse 17,) the offended brother is by the mouth of the elders to tell
the church, and if he hear the church, and
declare the same by penitent confession, he is recovered and gained:
And if the church discern him to be
willing to hear, yet not fully convinced of his offence, as in case of
heresy, they are to dispense to him a public
admonition; which, declaring the offender to lye under the public
offence of the church, does thereby
with-hold or suspend him from the holy fellowship of the Lord’s Supper,
till his offence be removed by
penitent confession. If he still continue obstinate, they are to cast
him out by excommunication.
3 But if the offence be more public at first, and of a more heinous and
criminal nature, (1 Cor. v. 4. 8, 11,) to
wit, such as are condemned by the: light of nature; then the church,
without such gradual proceeding, is to
cast out the offender from their holy communion, for the further
mortifying of his sin, and the healing of his
soul in the day of the Lord Jesus.
4 In dealing with an offender, great care is to be taken that we be
neither over-strict or rigorous, nor too
indulgent or remiss: our proceeding herein ought to be with a spirit of
meekness, considering ourselves, lest
we also be tempted, (Gal. vi. 1,) and that the best of us have need of
much forgiveness from the Lord. (Math.
xviii. 31, 3~.) Yet the winning and healing of the offender’s soul
being the end of these endeavors, (Ezek. xiii.
10,) we must not daub with untempered mortar, nor heal the wounds of
our brethren slightly. On some, have
compassion; others, save with fear.
5 While the offender remains excommunicate, (Mat. xviii. 17,) the church
is to refrain from all member-like
communion with him in spiritual things, (1 Cor. v. 11,) and also from
all familiar communion with him in civil
things, (2 Thes. iii. g. 14,) farther than the necessity of natural or
domestical or civil relations do require; and
are therefore to forbear to eat and drink with him, that he may be
ashamed.
6 Excommunication being a spiritual punishment, it doth not prejudice the
excommunicate in, or deprive him of
his civil rights, and therefor toucheth not princes or magistrates in
respect of their civil dignity or authority;
(1 Cor. xiv. 24, 26,) and the excommunicate being but as a publican and
a heathen, (2 Thes. iii. 14,) heathens
being lawfully permitted to hear the word in church-assemblies, we
acknowledge therefore the like liberty of
hearing the word may be permitted to persons excommunicate that is
permitted unto heathen. And because
we are not without hope of his recovery, we are not to account him as
an enemy, but to admonish him as a
brother.
7 If the Lord sanctify the censure to the offender, so as by the grace of
Christ, he doth testify his repentance
with humble confession of his sin, and judging of himself, giving glory
unto God, (2 Cor. ii. ‘1, 8,) the church is
then to forgive him, and to comfort him, and to restore him to the
wonted brotherly communion, which
formerly he enjoyed with ‘em.
8 The suffering of profane or scandalous livers to continue in
fellowship, and partake in the sacraments, (Rev.
ii. 14, 15. 20,) is doubtless a great sin in those that have power in
their hands to redress it, and do it not:
Nevertheless, in so much as Christ, and his apostles in their times,
and the prophets and other godly men in
theirs, (Mat. xxiii. 3; Acts iii. 1,) did lawfully partake of the
Lord’s commanded ordinances in the Jewish
church, and neither taught nor practiced separation from the same,
though unworthy ones were permitted
therein: and inasmuch as the faithful in the church of Corinth, wherein
were many unworthy persons and
practices, (1. Cor. vi. and xv. 12,) are never commanded to absent
themselves from the sacraments, because
of the same; therefore the godly, in like cases, are not to separate.
9 As separation from such a church wherein profane and scandalous
tolerated, is not presently necessary; so
for the members thereof, otherwise unworthy, hereupon to abstain from
communicating with such a church in
the participation of the sacraments, is unlawful. (2 Chr. xxx. 18; Gen.
xviii. 25.) For as it were unreasonable
for an innocent person to be punished for the faults of others, wherein
he has no hand, and whereunto he gave
no consent; so is it more unreasonable that a godly man should neglect
duty, and punish himself; in not
coming for his portion in the blessings of the seals, as he ought,
because others are suffered to come that
ought not; especially considering that he neither consents to their
sin, nor to their approaching to the
ordinance in their sin, nor to the neglect of others, who should put
them away, and do not, but, on the
contrary, heartily mourns for these things, (Ezek. ix. 4.) modestly and
seasonably stir up others to do their
duty. If the church cannot be reformed, they may use their liberty, as
is specified, CHAP. XII. Sect. 4. But
this all the godly are bound unto, even every one to his endeavor,
according to his power and place, that the
unworthy may be duly proceeded against by the church, to whom this
matter pertains.