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which, Jesus assured them of his power to forgive sins also, by his miraculous cures on men's bodies (St. Matt. ix. 6); and in the infancy of the Christian Church, God proceeded in the same way with the Corinthians, who profaned the holy communion (1 Cor. xi. 30), at a time when, as St. Chrysostom notes, and St. Paul's own language elsewhere implies, by reason of their schism there was no exercise of discipline amongst them. Now these methods sufficiently showed it was the will of God that notorious sinners should be excluded; they did the work, and served the ends of excommunication. They bound up the parties so that they wanted, if not commerce with men, yet, however, converse with God; for they could not go to the tabernacle or the temple, till both the sin was pardoned and the sickness removed together; and that restoration was their absolution, and also a warning not to offend again (Isa. xxxviii. 22; St. John v. 14). These miraculous visitations were therefore one cause of the infrequent use of excommunication for immoralities, under the law of Moses. But a second reason is derived from the peculiar form of government which Moses was employed to establish, which, being a theocracy, did not admit of two laws, one sacred and the other civil, nor two tribunals, as there are in other nations; but under it, the priests, as God's governors, had the chief authority in the Sanhedrim and in all other councils, and the power of temporal punishments (2 Chron. xix. 8). The high priest was the first person in the Sanhedrim; and the determining of all controversies, and punishing all offences, was principally in their hands (Deut. xvii. 9-13). The king himself was to advise with the priest in all matters 2, and it was a capital offence in any of the people to disobey the priestly orders. Now while the priests had this power, and the nation was governed by God's law, and its own magistrates of divine appointment, all moral evils and impieties were, if small, expiated by chargeable sacrifices, and so the offender was reconciled by the priest to God and the congregation; or, if the crimes were great, and done presumptuously (Deut. xvii. 12), they were to be punished with death. And here it is especially to be observed, that capital offences were not such only as Infidels and Heathens would view with horror, as murder, manslaughter, robbery, and the like, which human laws. take cognizance of; but they were also sins whose sinfulness, if not exclusively arising from their violation of God's will, was yet punished exclusively for that violation, such as adultery, Levit. xx. 10, Deut. xxii. 22; incest, in all its varied forms, Levit. xx. 19; rape, or fornication with a betrothed person, Deut. xxii. 24-26; drunkenness, and dishonouring of parents, Deut. xxi.

2 Joseph. in App. lib. ii.

18-21, for "so shalt thou put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear;" idolatry, or seducing to idolatry; witchcraft, or pretence of prophecy, or dreams, against God's honour, Deut. xiii.; blasphemy, Levit. xxiv. 16; Sabbath-breaking, Exod. xxxi. 14; defilement of the Tabernacle, by neglect of purification, Numb. xix. 13; and presumptuousness, Deut. xvii. 13. In all these cases, though person and property might be uninjured, and no private prosecutors might be disposed to act, on grounds of their own interest, one obligatory sentence was imposed by God, and that the severest mark of his displeasure, inflicted too in the most awfully impressive manner, namely, death, by the hands of the multitude, acting openly and avowedly as God's executioners. Little need was there then of spiritual excommunications, for their place was occupied by the carnal penalty of a forfeiture of life; God suiting the punishment to the people, and visiting with condign judgment, not alone such crimes as are arraigned by the ordinary laws of civilized or Christian nations, but those also which no court, save the ecclesiastical, can or will adjudicate upon. But since the whole of the Mosaic law was doubtless typical, we must not entirely pass over those lesser, but not light, penalties which were inflicted upon other classes of spiritual misdemeanour, viz. the heavy fine and stripes for slander, Deut. xxii. 13—19; the fine, and reparation by marriage, for seduction of an unbetrothed woman, Deut. xxii. 28, 29; the exclusion of bastards, and their children to the tenth generation, from the congregation of the Lord, Deut. xxiii. 2; and the similar exclusion of the Moabite and Ammonite, because of their fathers' opposition to the passage of Israel into the Holy Land, 3-6; there was also the typical exclusion of the ordinary leper; of the mother after child-birth; and of him that had touched a corpse; and, distinct in kind from all the other processes and types of Corrective Discipline among the Jews, was that fearful ordeal, known as the trial of jealousy, the consequence of which, to the guilty party, were the swollen belly, and the rotting thigh, Numb. v. At a later period, when temporal power had been in part withdrawn from them, we find the Jewish authorities having recourse to a substitute for the Mosaic capital sanctions, much more immediately resembling excommunication. Thus, after the Babylonish captivity, Ezra threatened all who should not appear within three days to put away their strange wives, that he who did not come up to Jerusalem, all his goods should be forfeited (which seems to be the civil sanction), and himself should be separated from the congregation of the captivity (Ezra x. 8). And during our Lord's ministry, we have an instance of this excommunication, inflicted upon the poor blind man, whose sight he had restored (St. John ix. 34); and both in that place and

at xii. 42, the expression "lest they should be cast out of the synagogue," was translated in our old English version excommunicated.

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We proceed to inquire, in the next place, what evidence the New Testament contains, to show that a power of inflicting censures analogous, though not similar, to that exercised by the Jewish priests, was committed to those who "have the rule over us," and who "watch for our souls," in the Christian dispensation. And we doubt not that a minute comparison of the passages which will be brought forward, would reward the diligent student with this result; that for every ceremonial, or other offence, subjected to punishment under the law, there is an antitype under the Gospel, the sins differing, after the same manner as the sanctions; of which St. Augustine says, nunc agit in Ecclesià Excommunicatio, quod agebat tunc Interfectio. For corporal offences and punishments will be found spiritual offences and punishments not less real; for destruction of the body of flesh, excision from the fellowship of Christ's Body; for stripes, admonitions; for witchcraft, heresy; and for contact with the dead, a denial of the death to sin. And we may add, that no application of a non-miraculous spiritual power could approach nearer to the trial of jealousy, for the clearing of persons unjustly suspected, or the conviction of secret criminals, than the oath of compurgation, so long practised in the Church.

The disciplinary commission which our Lord gave to his Apostles, and in them to all their successors to the world's end, is contained in three passages of the Gospels (St. Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 18; and St. John xx. 21-23). When St. Peter had in the name of all the Apostles confessed Christ to be the Son of God (St. Matt. xvi. 15, 16), our Lord declares that he had made good his name of Peter (signifying a Rock) in laying this sure foundation; and assures him He would build his Church this Rock, i. e. this confession of Christ, the Rock of ages, so that it should stand for ever in despite of all the opposition hell could make against it (verse 18). And since so well-grounded and durable a House ought to have some to rule it, our Lord shows in the next verse who shall have the government of it, saying,

3 Aug. Quæst. in Deut. lib. v. c. 38.

upon

4 Comber here gives several references to the Fathers (and might also have quoted one of the earliest decrees of the Council of Trent), in proof that πirpa meant the confession of Peter, and not Peter Tέrpoç himself. But whether or no the Apostle was alluded to, as about to be founder of the Church Christian by his sermon at Pentecost, and by his baptism of Cornelius, matters little to the argument; since the Roman abuse of the personal interpretation sometimes resorted to by them, is shown to be groundless in Scripture, by the subsequent commissions to all the Apostles, in the same Gospel, and in St. John's, and by the universal testimony of the early Church; whose bishops ever exercised an independent disciplinary jurisdiction.

"And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (verse 19). Here the metaphor is continued, and the Church being compared to a House (its usual emblem, 1 Tim. iii. 15; Ephes. ii. 20), the power of ruling this house is set forth by giving the keys, which are given to those who are chief stewards and managers of the family. So, when God would express his committing the government of the house of David to Eliakim, He saith, "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder" (Isa. xxii. 21); and our Lord's having "the keys of death and hell" (Rev. i. 18), is to manifest his power to condemn thither, or to save from thence. And these keys here granted are called the "keys of the kingdom of heaven," as well because the Church and kingdom of grace on earth is called by that name (St. Matt. iii. 2), as because the Church is the gate to the kingdom of glory; and we cannot regularly come into the kingdom of heaven above, but by and through this gate of the Church on earth; and so, by consequence, the power of the keys of the Church contains in them the right to admit men into this household of God by baptism, so making them heirs, on certain conditions, of the kingdom of heaven; and to exclude men out of this household by excommunication, if they neglect those conditions, and are guilty of notorious and scandalous offences; and consequently to deprive them of the privileges which belonged to them while they were regular members of God's family. And as a Prince, when he makes a deputy or viceroy, usually declares in his commission that what he does in such a province in his name, and by his power, the Prince will ratify and confirm; so our Saviour here tells Peter, and in him the rest of the Apostles, that whatever he binds or looses upon earth, shall be bound or loosed in heaven; meaning that He will hold their judicial acts to be good and valid, so long as they keep to the law and rules which He has left them to govern by. And St. Chrysostom thus accounts for the change of metaphor (from "keys" which are to open and shut, to "binding and loosing"): he supposes the power of a viceroy to be here signified; and as he can lock up men in prison, or release them according as they deserve, and hath the power of the keys committed to him to separate the innocent from the mischievous, so Christ here gives his Apostles like authority in order to the well-governing of his Church; only there is no temporal coercive power, as many other texts of the New Testament declare, but a spiritual power, suitable to the nature and ends of this spiritual household. Thus did our Lord here give to

his Apostles a commission, as well to exclude notorious criminals out of his Church by excommunication, as to re-admit them upon their repentance; promising to confirm their acts so long as they judged by his rules. And thus is Corrective Ecclesiastical Discipline shown to be of Divine institution.

66

The truth of this ancient interpretation will be further confirmed by considering the second passage of the New Testament, in which this power is mentioned, viz. St. Matt. xviii. 18, Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven:" the very same words with those before addressed to St. Peter. And if we look back to the occasion of them here, it will be evident they can be meant of nothing but of ecclesiastical discipline. For in this eighteenth chapter our Lord first labours to prevent the doing injuries and offences to the meanest of his disciples (verses 1-14). But, secondly, in case injuries be done, or any scandal or offence given, He teaches the offended person what method to take; viz., first, privately to admonish the offender (ver. 15); and if that prevail not, the grieved party must rebuke him before witnesses (ver. 16); and if this also prove unsuccessful, then he must complain to the Church, which is supposed to rebuke, and if need be, to censure the stubborn criminal; and if he do not "hear the Church," (i. e. submit to its sentence, and make reparation,) then private Christians are to renounce all communion and commerce with that man, and behave towards him as the Jews did to a heathen or publican, with whom they would not discourse, nor eat (St. Matt. ix. 12; Gal. ii. 12); nor yet suffer them to come into the court of the temple, where they were wont to pray (Acts xxi. 28); for on the gate was written, "Let no stranger go into the holy place." That is, they must no longer count this man a member of the Christian Church, nor call him a brother, but esteem him as a pagan, and one who never yet was admitted; or a publican, who, for living in open sins, was cast out. And lest this sentence should be despised, as though it were only a human act, our Lord promises that it shall be confirmed in heaven "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind," &c.; and yet further assures his Apostles, that if only two of them agreed on earth in any sentence or matter of the kind, it should be done for them of his Father. The third passage in the Gospels relating to the apostolic commission to exercise Corrective Discipline, is in St. John xx. 21-23, which plainly shows, as was semper, ubique, et ab omnibus maintained, that by "tell it to the Church," we are

5 Joseph. Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 14.

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