Now I returne back againe to excommunication, which M. Doctor thinketh to be ye only disci∣pline in the church, but he should vnderstande, that beside y• part of priuate discipline (which is ordi∣narily & daily to be exercised by euery one of ye pastors & elders, as admonition & reprehension) there are thre principal partes which are exercised of thē ioyntly & together, wherof the first is the election or choise, & the abdication or putting out of ecclesiastical officers. The seconde is in excommunication of the stubborne or absolution of the repentant. The thirde is the decision of all such matters as doe rise in the church, either touching corrupt manners or peruerse doctrine.
I speake of ye publike discipline of ye church, not of priuate admonition & reprehen∣sion, which may be called by ye name of Discipline, but neither are they properly, nor vsually so called, except you wil also say ye publike preaching & reading of ye scriptures is discipline: these be things annexed to discipline, but vnproperly termed by ye name* 1.1 of discipline. Your partition of discipline into those three parts, in my poore iudgemēt, is very vnskilful: for discipline cōsisteth in punishing & correcting of vice: neither yet is the deciding of controuersies in matters doubtfull, properly called discipline, for dis∣cipline is exercised in punishing & correcting ye persons, not decioing ye causes. Wher∣fore I thinke you haue forgottē your self, & in steade of ye part, haue deuided ye whole, that is, you haue made a diuision of gouernment, wheras you tooke vpon you to deuide discipline, which is but a part of ecclesiasticall pollicie or gouernment.
Reade the generall confession, of ye Christian churches in Heluetia, & tell me what it differeth from any thing ye I haue said. Call to your remēbrance that which your selfe* 1.2 haue spoken, pag. 14. where you call other censures of the church, but forerunners to excommu∣nication, but this is a contention only about words, & therfore inough is said of it.