Part 37 (1/2)
A. KER.
PROPOSITIONS.
1. As our Lord Jesus Christ doth invisibly teach and govern his church by the Holy Spirit; so in gathering, preserving, instructing, building and saving thereof, he useth ministers as his instruments, and hath appointed an order of some to teach and others to learn in the church, and that some should be the flock and others the pastors.
2. For beside these first founders of the church of Christ, extraordinarily sent, and furnished with the gift of miracles, whereby they might confirm the doctrine of the gospel, he appointed also ordinary pastors and teachers, for the executing of the ministry, even until his coming again unto judgment, Eph. iv. 11-13. Wherefore also, as many as are of the number of G.o.d's people, or will be accounted Christians, ought to receive and obey the ordinary ministers of G.o.d's word and sacraments (lawfully though mediately called), as the stewards and amba.s.sadors of Christ himself.
3. It is not lawful for any man, how fit soever and how much soever enriched or beautified with excellent gifts, to undertake the administration either of the word or sacraments by the will of private persons, or others who have not power and right to call, much less it is lawful by their own judgment or arbitrement to a.s.sume and arrogate the same to themselves. But before it be lawful to undergo that sacred ministry in churches const.i.tuted, a special calling, yea beside, a lawful election (which alone is not sufficient), a mission or sending, or (as commonly it is termed) ordination, is necessarily required, and that both for the avoiding of confusion, and to bar out or shut the door (so far as in us lieth) upon impostors; as also by reason of divine inst.i.tution delivered to us in the Holy Scripture, Rom. x. 15; Heb. v. 4; t.i.t. i. 5; 1 Tim. ii. 7.
4. The church ought to be governed by no other persons than ministers and stewards preferred and placed by Christ, and after no other manner than according to the laws made by him; and, therefore, there is no power on earth which may challenge to itself authority or dominion over the church: but whosoever they are that would have the things of Christ to be administered not according to the ordinance and will of Christ revealed in his word, but as it liketh them, and according to their own will and prescript, what other thing go they about to do than by horrible sacrilege to throw down Christ from his own throne?
5. For our only lawgiver and interpreter of his Father's will, Jesus Christ hath prescribed and foreappointed the rule according to which he would have his wors.h.i.+p and the government of his own house to be ordered.
To wrest this rule of Christ, laid open in his holy word, to the counsels, wills, manners, devices, or laws of men, is most high impiety. But contrarily, the law of faith commandeth the counsel and purposes of men to be framed and conformed to this rule, and overturneth all the reasonings of worldly wisdom, and bringeth into captivity the thoughts of the proud swelling mind to the obedience of Christ. Neither ought the voice of any to take place or be rested upon in the church but the voice of Christ alone.
6. The same Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, the only Head of the church, hath ordained in the New Testament, not only the preaching of the word and administration of baptism and the Lord's supper, but also ecclesiastical government, distinct and differing from the civil government; and it is his will that there be such a government distinct from the civil in all his churches everywhere, as well those which live under Christian, as those under infidel magistrates, even until the end of the world. Heb. xiii. 7, 17; 1 Tim. v. 17, 19; Rom. xii. 8; 1 Cor. xii.
28; 1 Thess. v. 12; Acts i. 20; Luke xii. 42; 1 Tim. vi. 14; Rev. ii. 25.
7. This ecclesiastical government, distinct from the civil, is from G.o.d committed, not to the whole body of the church or congregation of the faithful, or to be exercised both by officers and people, but to the ministers of G.o.d's word, together with the elders which are joined with them for the care and government of the church, 1 Tim. v. 17. To those, therefore, who are over the church in the Lord, belongeth the authority and power, and it lieth upon them by their office, according to the rule of G.o.d's word, to discern and judge betwixt the holy and profane, to give diligence for amendment of delinquents, and to purge the church (as much as is in them) from scandals, and that not only by inquiring, inspection, warning, reproving, and more sharply expostulating, but also by acting in the further and more severe parts of ecclesiastical discipline, or exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, even unto the greatest and weightiest censures, where deed is.
8. None that is within the church ought to be without the reach of church law, and exempt from ecclesiastical censures; but discipline is to be exercised on all the members of the church, without respect or consideration of those adhering qualities which use to commend a man to other men, such as power, n.o.bility, ill.u.s.trious descent, and the like: for the judgment cannot be right where men are led and moved with these considerations. Wherefore, let respect of persons be far from all judges, chiefly the ecclesiastical: and if any in the church do so swell in pride, that he refuse to be under this discipline, and would have himself to be free and exempt from all trial and ecclesiastical judgment, this man's disposition is more like the haughtiness of the Roman Pope, than the meekness and submissiveness of Christ's sheep.
9. Ecclesiastical censure, moreover, is either proper to be inflicted upon the ministers and office-bearers only, or with them common to other members of the church: the former consisteth in suspension or deposition of ministers from their office (which in the ancient canons is called ?a?a??es??); the latter consisteth in the greater and lesser excommunication (as they speak). Whatsoever in another brother deserveth excommunication, the same much more in a minister deserveth excommunication: but justly sometimes a minister is to be put from his office, and deprived of that power which by ordination was given him, against whom, nevertheless, to draw the sword of excommunication, no reason doth compel.
10. Sometime also it happeneth that a minister, having fallen into heresy or apostacy, or other grievous crimes, if he show tokens of true repentance, may be justly received into the communion of the church, whom, notwithstanding, it is no way expedient to restore into his former place or charge; yea, perhaps it will not be found fit to restore such an one to the ministry in another congregation as soon as he is received into the bosom of the church; which surely is most agreeable as well to the word of G.o.d (2 Kings xxiii. 9; Ezek. xliv. 10-14,) as to that ecclesiastical discipline, which in some ages after the times of the Apostle was in use.
So true is it that the ministers of the church are liable as well to peculiar as to common censures; or that a minister of the church is censured one way, and one of the people another way.
11. Ecclesiastical censure, which is not proper to ministers, but common to them with other members of the church, is either suspension from the Lord's supper (which by others is called the publican's excommunication), or the cutting off of a member, which is commonly called excommunication.
The distinction of this twofold censure (commonly, though not so properly pa.s.sing under the name of the lesser and greater excommunication) is not only much approved by the church of Scotland, and the synod now a.s.sembled at Westminster, but also by the reformed churches of France, the Low Countries, and of Poland, as is to be seen in the _Book of the Ecclesiastical Discipline of the Reformed Churches in France_, chap. 5, art. 9; in the _Harmony of the Belgic Synods_, chap. 14, art. 8, 9; in the canons of the general synod of Torn, held in the year 1597.
12. That the distinction of that twofold church censure was allowed also by antiquity, it may be sufficiently clear to him who will consult the sixty-first canon of the sixth general synod, with the annotations of Zonaras and Balsamon; also the thirteenth canon of the eighth synod (which is termed the first and second), with the notes of Zonaras; yea, besides, even the penitents also themselves of the fourth degree, or ?? ??
s?stase?, that is, which were in the _consistency_, were suspended from the Lord's supper, though as to other things of the same condition with the faithful; for, to the communion also of prayers, and so to all privileges of ecclesiastical society, the eucharist alone excepted, they were thought to have right: so sacred a thing was the eucharist esteemed.
See also, beside others, Cyprian, book 1, epist. 11; that Dionysius, the author of _The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_, chap. 3, part. 3; Basil., _Epist. to Amphilochius_, can. 4; Ambrose, _De Officiis_, lib. 2, chap.
27; Augustine, in his book against the Donatists after the Conference, cap. 4; Chrysostom, hom. 83, in Matt.; Gregor. the Great, _Epist._, lib.
2, chap. 65, 66; Walafridus Strabo, _Of Ecclesiastical Matters_, chap. 17.
13. That first and lesser censure by Christ's ordinance is to be inflicted on such as have received baptism, and pretend to be true members of the church, yet are found unfit and unworthy to communicate in the signs of the grace of Christ with the church, whether for their gross ignorance of divine things, the law, namely, and gospel, or by reason of scandal, either of false doctrine or wicked life. For these causes, therefore, or for some one of them, they are to be kept back from the sacrament of the Lord's supper (a lawful judicial trial going before) according to the interdiction of Christ, forbidding that that which is holy be given to dogs, or pearls be cast before swine, Matt. vii. 6; and this censure of suspension is to continue till the offenders bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.
14. For the a.s.serting and defending of this suspension there is no small accession of strength from the nature of the sacrament itself, and the inst.i.tution and end thereof. The word of G.o.d indeed is to be preached, as well to the unG.o.dly and impenitent, that they may be converted, as to the G.o.dly and repenting that they may be confirmed; but the sacrament of the Lord's supper is by G.o.d inst.i.tuted, not for beginning the work of grace, but for nouris.h.i.+ng and increasing grace, and therefore no one is to be admitted to the Lord's supper who by his life testifieth that he is impenitent, and not as yet converted.
15. Indeed, if the Lord had inst.i.tuted this sacrament, that not only it should nourish and cherish faith, and seal the promises of the gospel, but also should begin the work of grace in sinners, and give regeneration itself as the instrumental cause thereof, verily even the most wicked, most unclean, and most unworthy, were to be admitted: but the reformed churches do otherwise judge of the nature of this sacrament, which shall be abundantly manifest by the gleaning of these following testimonies.
16. The _Scottish Confession_, art. 23. ”But we confess that the Lord's supper belongs only to those of the household of faith who can try and examine themselves, as well in faith as in the duties of faith towards their neighbours. Whoso abideth without faith, and in variance with their brethren, do at that holy table eat and drink unworthily. Hence it is that the pastors in our church do enter on a public and particular examination, both of the knowledge, conversation and life, of those who are to be admitted to the Lord's table.” The _Belgic Confession_, art. 35:-”We believe also and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ hath ordained the holy sacrament of his supper, that in it he may nourish and uphold them whom he hath already regenerated.”
17. The _Saxon Confession_, art. 15:-”The Lord willeth that every receiver be particularly confirmed by this testimony, so that he may be certified that the benefits of the gospel do appertain to himself, seeing the preaching is common, and by this testimony, by this receiving, he showeth that thou art one of his members, and washed with his blood.” And by and by:-”Thus, therefore, we instruct the church, that it behoveth them that come to the supper to bring with them repentance or conversion, and (faith being now kindled in the mediation of the death and resurrection, and the benefits of the Son of G.o.d) to seek here the confirmation of this faith.”
The very same things are set down, and that in the very same words, in the consent of the churches of Poland in the Sendomirian synod, anno 1570, art. ”of the Lord's supper.”
18. The _Bohemian Confession_, art. 11:-”Next our divines teach that the sacraments of themselves, or as some say, _ex opere operato_, do not confer grace to those who are not first endued with good motions, and inwardly quickened by the Holy Spirit, neither do they bestow justifying faith, which maketh the soul of man in all things obsequious, trusting and obedient to G.o.d; for faith must go before (we speak of them of ripe years), which quickeneth a man by the work of the Holy Spirit, and putteth good motions into the heart.” And after:-”But if any come unworthily to the sacraments, he is not made by them worthy or clean, but doth only bring greater sin and d.a.m.nation on himself.”