Conformity of the ecclesiastical discipline of the Reformed churches of France with that of the primitive Christians written by M. La Rocque ... ; render'd into English by Jos. Walker.

XVII.

If by such suspensions the Sinners were not reclaimed, but continued obstinate and impenitent after long expectation, and that they have been several times admonished and intreat∣ed, proceeding shall be made against them, by giving publick admonitions to the People three several Sundays, being na∣med, if need be, by the Minister, to make them more ashamed; every body advertised to pray to God for them; and endea∣vour by all means to bring them home by repentance of their sins, to prevent Retrenchment and Excommunication, to which one cannot proceed without sorrow. But if for all this, they will not repent, but persevere in their obstinacy and impe∣nitence, on the fourth Sunday it shall be publickly said by the Pastor, That 'tis declared to the said scandalous and obstinate persons, in naming them by their Names, That they are not any longer acknowledged as Members of the Church, cutting them off from it in the Name and Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his Church. And the form of the Excommu∣nication shall be as follows.

The Form of the Excommunication.

Brethren, see here the fourth time that we de∣clare unto you, that N. for having committed several Crimes, and for having scandalized the Church of God, and for shewing himself impe∣nitent and a contemner of all admonitions which have beén made unto him by the Word of God, has been suspended from the Holy Sup∣per of the Lord; the which suspension, and cau∣ses of it, has been signified to you, to the end you may join your Prayers with ours, that it might please God to soften the hardness of his heart, and give him true Repentance, drawing him from the way of perdition. But having so long time waited for him, prayed and exhorted, and conjur'd him to be converted to God, and en∣deavoured all means to bring him to repentance, nevertheless perseveres in his impenitence, and with an incor rigible obstinacy, rebels against God, and tramples under foot his Holy Word, and the Order he has established in his Church; and glorying in his sins, is cause that the Church for so long time, is disturbed, and the Name of God blasphemed. We Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ, whom God has armed with Spiritual weapons, powerful through God to the pulling down of strong holds which hold out in opposition against him, to whom the Eternal Son of God has given power to bind and loose on Earth, declaring that whatsoever we bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven, to the end to purifie the House of God, and free his

Church from Scandals, and in pronouncing Anathema against the wicked, should glorifie the Name of God. In the Name and Authority of the Lord Iesus, by the advice and authority of the Pastors and Elders assembled in Colloque, and of the Consistory of this Church, we have Retrenched and do Retrench the said N. from the Communion of the Church: we Excommuni∣cate and remove him from the Society of the Faithful, that he might be to you as a heathen and unbeliever, and amongst true Christians he may be Anathema, and Execrated, let his Com∣pany be esteemed contagious, and let his Exam∣ple fill your souls with fear, and make you trem∣ble under the mighty hand of God, seeing 'tis a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Which Sentence of Excommunication the Son of God will ratifie, and make it effi∣cacious, until that the sinner ashamed and hum∣bled in the sight of God, gives him glory by his eonversion, and being freed from these chains of Satan, where with he is bound, he bewails his sins with tears of Repentance. Beloved Brethren, pray unto God that he will have pity on this poor sinner, and that this fearful Iudg∣ment, the which with great sorrow and sadness of heart we pronounce against him in the Name and Authority of the Son of God, may serve to humble and turn into the way of truth, a soul which is strayed from it. Amen.

Cursed is every one that doth the work of the Lord negligently. If there be any one that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha. Amen.

CONFORMITY.

Christians were not the first which inflicted the pain of Excommunication on Rebellious and Scandalous Sin∣ners; Pagans and Jews have practised the same thing; I say Pagans; Casar informs us in his Commentaries, that the Druids in Gaul Excommunicated those which despi∣sed their Decrees and their Constitutions; * 1.1 forbidding them to approach near the Sacrifices, after which they were lookt upon as impious and obstinate, every one flying from their company and conversation, fearing to receive some harm by infection; and this punishment, which was the greatest of all those they did inflict, put into such a condition those which were subjected to it, that they were refused the benefit of the Law, altho they earnestly desired it; and it also deprived them from all degree of honour.

As for the Jews, every body knows Excommunicati∣on was in use amongst them; who, as 'tis said, had three sorts; the first and slightest, which they called Niddui, this separated the guilty from those which were not so, but for a little space, and for thirty days only; the second which they called Herem, was attended with Anathema's and Maledictions, and it was not permitted to eat nor drink with him that was so Excommunicated; and 'tis probable St. Paul had regard to this kind of Ex∣communication, when he saith, 1 Cor. 5.2. I write unto you, that you should not eat with such a one. The third kind of Excommunication was Shammatta, by which was sepa∣rated for ever from the Communion and Society of the Church, him that was guilty.

Seeing then that Jews and Pagans have exercised this power, methinks it would be injustice to refuse it to the

Christian Church, seeing also Jesus Christ her Head and Spouse has commanded us in his Gospel to look on him that refuses to hear the Church, as a Pagan and Heathen; that is to say, * 1.2 he will, that he be cast out of the Church; or that he be Excommunicated, which amounts all to one thing. St. Paul has expressed this action by delivering over to Satan, 1 Cor. 5.5. 1 Tim. 1.20. unless one will say that there was something more in St. Paul's Excom∣munication than in that designed by Jesus Christ in the Gospel.

However it be, the Governours of Churches strength∣ned by the command of the Lord Jesus, and by the Ex∣ample of his Apostles, have always Exercised this Ec∣clesiastical power against enormous and scandalous sins. Tertullian and Origen have shewn on the fifteenth Article, That it was the practise of their times; which is also ve∣rified by the places I have cited out of the same Origen on the precedent Article; and by another of Tertullian's, who writes in his Book of Pudicity, Chap 4. that these sinners should be driven away from the Inclosure of the Church, and the place of the Assembly; and this was the great and true Excommunication whereas the other was only a privation from the Sacraments. To these two Witnesses we may joyn St. Cyprian, Contemporary with Origen, who very often in his Epistles makes mention of this Censure, * 1.3 when he speaks, of removing from the Communion, of not Communicating with some one, to ba∣nish, and to cast out of the Church, to condemn by the mouth of the Pastor, to kill with the Spiritual Sword. And other Expressions he uses to declare the same thing. The tenth of the Canons attributed to the Apostles, does not suffer us to be ignorant of this ancient Discipline arrow_forward . Seeing he Excommunicates him that prays with an Excommunicated person, in the House only: I'le inlarge no farther, seeing

one must make a Volume, if one would collect all the Canons and Testimonies of the Fathers which treat of Excommunication; and more also, should one treat of the History of Interdiction, which Popes, to render their Power more formidable, have sent abroad in these last Ages, contrary to the use and practise of the Primitive Church, to which they were utterly unknown.

As for the Order which is to be followed, according to our arrow_back Discipline, before debarring a sinner from the Com∣munion of the Church, besides that it is grounded on the Laws and Precepts of Charity, it is also conforma∣able to the practise of the Primitive Christians, * 1.4 who by Origen's report, reproved and warned the guilty three several times before they came to this last Extremity. Thence it is also, the same method was observed when there was any mention of deposing an Ecclesiastical Per∣son, because in sundry occasions the same faults which deserved Deposition of a Church-man, was punished with Excommunication in a Secular, as appears by di∣vers Canons, particularly by the sixth and seventh of the first Oecumenical Council of Ephesus, where we find these words, If they are Bishops, * 1.5 or others of the Clergy which are deposed, the Bishops from Episcopacy, the others from the degree they-held in the Clergy, from whence they are quite excluded; but if they are Lay persons, let them be Excommunicated. And we have made appear on the 49th. Artic. of Chap. 1. that a Bishop was cited three times, or any other Ecclesiastical person, before proceeding to his deposing.

I don't insist on the form of Excommunication repea∣ted after the Article on which I have made the necessary remarks, because 'tis in the liberty of the Church in such like occasions to make use of what terms it shall judge most fitting, provided that in the main it don't depart

from the bounds which the Gospel does prescribe, nor from the Example of the Holy Apostles. Neither do we see that in the Primitive Church they were confined to the use of a sorm of words when any one was Excom∣municated; those which condemned Sinners to that pu∣nishment, having been always Masters of the form and manner of Excommunication, which is always the same in substance, what variety soever there may be in the form wherein it is conceived.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lib. 6. pag. 134, 135.
• * 1.2

  Matt. 18.17.
• * 1.3

  Ep. 28.38, 55, 62 of the last Edit.
• * 1.4

  Hom. in Jos. Tom. 1. p. 185.
• * 1.5

  See the Can. 8, & 17. of the Counc. of Calced.