Synodicon in Gallia reformata, or, The acts, decisions, decrees, and canons of those famous national councils of the reformed churches in France being I. a most faithful and impartial history of the rise, growth, perfection and decay of the reformation in that kingdom, with its fatal catastrophe upon the revocation of the Edict of Nants in the year 1685 : II. the confession of faith and discipline of those churches : III. a collection of speeches, letters, sacred politicks, cases of conscience, and controversies in divinity, determined and resolved by those grave assemblies : IV. many excellent expedients for preventing and healing schisms in the churches and for re-uniting the dismembred body of divided Protestants : V. the laws, government, and maintenance of their colleges, universities and ministers, together with their exercise of discipline upon delinquent ministers and church-members : VI. a record of very many illustrious events of divine providence relating to those churches : the whole collected and composed out of original manuscript acts of those renowned synods : a work never be extant in any language.

CHAP. III.

II. FOrasmuch as Sins committed in the Church ought to be corrected by the Word of God, and according to the Rule of Charity, and all Sins are not alike grievous and scandalous, some being more enormous, others of a lesser nature, some secret and others publick, we must therefore according to their quality and aggravations accommodate the Censure and Reprehensi∣on: so then secret Sins, whereof the Sinner by means of Brotherly Admoni∣tions shall be brought unto Repentance, and hath reformed them, shall not be brought into the Consistory; but those only which these first means cannot reform nor amend, or Sins publickly known, the cognisance of which belongs unto the said Consistory, who must proceed to the Reformation of them by proper and convenient Censures, considering these sins with all their circum∣stances, that so according as the case requireth, they may apply either a se∣vere and rigorous Reprehension, or a more moderate one in the Spirit of Meekness, as may be most expedient to bring the Sinner to Repentance; who to this end shall by the Authority of the Consistory be for some time deprived of the Lord's Supper, if it be needful, that so he may be humbled, or finally excommunicated, and totally cut off from the Body of the Church, according to that Order hereafter declared, if so be he shew himself rebel∣lious to the Holy Admonitions and Censures inflicted on him, and continue obstinate and impenitent. But inasmuch as this is the last and most rigorous of all Remedies, it shall never be used but in case of extremity, when all fair and gentle Means have proved ineffectual. And whereas even unto this day in divers places this distinction between this last Excommunication, and tem∣porary

Suspension, or simple Privation of the Lord's Supper, hath not been observed as it ought; that both the one and the other may be duely used, the Ministers and Elders interpreting these words of Excommunication and Suspension from the Lord's Table, do give it as their Opinion, That no Person should be deprived or suspended the Lord's Table by the single Authority of the Pastors, or of any other, but only by the Consistory, which shall prudent∣ly consider and judge, whether the Crime related to them, and whereof the Sinner hath been first of all admonished, deserve for its heinousness Suspen∣sion or no: and if it do, then he who shall have committed such a sin shall for some time be deprived of the Lord's Supper, in order to his Humiliation, and the Tryal of his Repentance: But if the sin be known only to a few Per∣sons, this Suspension, nor its cause may not be signified unto the People, least the Sinner be the more defamed, and his sin made more scandalous and noto∣rious than it was; and it shall be sufficient if in this case, he do only acknow∣ledge his sin unto the Consistory, that so he may be received unto the Table of our Lord Jesus. But as for those, who having been oftentimes admonish∣ed of their sins, shall ever shew themselves Disobedient to the Consistory, and those also who being guilty of great and enormous Crimes, punishable by the Civil Magistrate, and which bring publick Scandal upon the Church, altho' there may be observed some beginnings of Repentance in them, shall never∣theless be out of hand suspended the Lord's Table, and the said Suspension shall be published unto the People, that so the Church of God may be dis∣charged of all Blame and Reproach, and that such Sinners may be the more deeply humbled in the exercise and proof of their Repentance, and an Holy Terrour struck into the hearts of others: and if after some good space of time, there appearing solid proofs and evidences of their Conversion and Repen∣tance, attested to by sufficient Witnesses, the Judgment whereof belongs unto the Consistory; they shall be publickly reconciled unto the Church by Con∣fession of their Offences, and Expressions of true Repentance, that so they may purge away and repair the Scandal they had given unto the whole Church, and then they shall be admitted unto the Lord's Table. But and if it should happen, that after along and patient waiting, and divers Admoniti∣ons made by the Consistory, and the aforesaid Proceedings observed and pra∣ctised, and all charitable Endeavours used for the regaining of the Sinner, he nevertheless abide obstinate and impenitent, then the Pastor in the Name of the whole Church shall proceed against him by publick Admonitions, declar∣ing unto the whole Church his Offences, protesting also of their due and re∣ligious Care for him, and Carriage towards him, tho' without any fruit or be∣nefit, exhorting the whole Church to seek God earnestly on his behalf, and to use all means that may bring him to a sight and sence of his sin, that so that dreadful Sentence of Excommunication and Cutting off from the Church of God (whereunto she cannot proceed but with the greatest Regret and Grief,) may be prevented. And the said Pastor shall in his Sermon from the Word of God declare the true, right and lawful Use of this Censure, that every one may be instructed in his Duty both towards God and his Neigh∣bour; and that all may understand that this last Remedy is used with this Sin∣ner for the Glory of God, the Honour and Reputation of the Church, and the Salvation of his Soul in particular: And these publick Admonitions and Denunciations shall be prosecuted and continued three several times, on three several Lord's Days; on the first of which the Sinner shall not be mentioned by Name, that so in some sort he may be spared, though he be already too well known unto the People; but on the two succeeding Sundays he shall be particularly named. And if after all this he does not repent, nor become a Convert, but persisteth obstinately in his sinful Courses, then on the fourth Lord's Day, in the face and presence of the whole Congregation, such a one, mentioning him by Name, shall be declared and pronounced Excommunicate

and cut off as a rotten Member, from the Body of the Church; the Pastor declaring it authoritatively from the Word of God, in the Name, and with the Consent of the whole Church.

Those who are thus excommunicate and cut off, shall be deprived of all Communion with the Church, and of all it's Priviledges; and the Faithful shall be admonished neither to converse familiarly with them, nor to fre∣quent their Company, that so they may be ashamed, humbled, and brought unto Repentance; the truth whereof shall be demonstrated by good Fruits, and unexceptionable Evidences, known unto the Consistory, who shall judge whether they ought to be received again into the Church; and having called, seen, and heard them, and found them truely penitent, it shall be published by the Pastor unto the whole Congregation, that so they may be stirred up to praise God for touching their hearts with Remorse, and recovering them un∣to Repentance. And then these Penitents shall come before the whole Church to give satisfaction for their past Scandal, confessing and detesting their former Sins and Rebellions, begging humbly Pardon of God and the Church for them; and thus shall they be received unto the Church's Peace and Fellowship with Joy and Publick Thanksgiving.

Notes

• The manner of Proceeding in Ecclesiasti∣cal Censures.
• Excommuni∣cation must not be used but in ex∣tream neces∣sity.
• The words Excommuni∣cation and Suspension explained. No Minister of his private Authority can deprive a Man of the Lord s Sup∣per.
• See the Sy∣nod of Nis∣mes, Art. 5.
• Degrees of proceeding to the last Ex∣communica∣tion.