Page images
PDF
EPUB

done: But these being put together and appearing to be the fame with what is found in the Practice of the Primitive Church or in Rules which that acknowledged, the likeness and agreement between them fhall be a good presumption as that the whole was from the Apostles, fo that in thefe Churches of their Planting, where inftances or directions appear of or concerning any Parts of Difcipline, there fome Order was taken by them for fuch Discipline as we fee to have been in the Primitive Church. If any Man approve not this Argument, it will lie upon him to give fome account, how the Apoftles came to do the very fame things which a Power was fupposed to be given for, in the Power of the Keys, given by Chrift to his Church for the Remitting and Retaining Sins, unless they understood the Authority given by our Saviour therein to fuch purposes: How the Writings of the Apoftles that are not Intelligible otherwife, fhould be fo easily intelligible when understood to speak of those things that were Practifed in the Primitive Difcipline, but that indeed they refer to fome Order taken with the Church for fuch a Discipline: Or how the Practice of the Primitive Church fhould come to be the fame with that which we have intimations of

in the Writings of the Apostles, if both were not from their Authority: And how the fame Customs and Rules in this matter should have taken place throughout the whole Church, if all Churches had not understood themselves to have a Power from Chrift and his Apostles for this Purpose, and that the Church by the Miniftry entrusted with it, was obliged to imploy Exhortations, Reproofs and Cenfures, (which were the univerfal Practice of the Church) for the purpose of bringing Sinners to acknowledge their faults, and to go through a courfe of Repentance; and to adjudge to a farther Cenfure for putting out of the Church, where either. thefe could not prevail on the obftinacy of the Sinner, or where the Crime was fuch as was not to be allowed hope of forgiveness by the Church; Until therefore fome other Account be given of this, more Probable and more Rational, which I do not expect to fee; this Act alfo of S. Paul's delivering to Satan Hymenæus and Alexander, that is, putting them out of the Church, fhall be deemed to be an Act done upon the Power of the Keys, and to imply a Discipline in the Church wherein he did it, as also to be a Precedent for thes Church to do the like in case of others: that should make Shipwreck of the Faith,

and

[ocr errors]

and put away a good Confcience as those had done; whom therefore he delivered unto Satan, to the end that they might learn not to Blafpheme, which, whether it fignify not to fpeak Evil of the Truth, as is ufual with fuch as have departed from the Faith, that they may not feem to have done it without caufe; or that they should not give occasion for the Name of God to be Blafphemed by the Sins they lived in, having put away a good Confcience; or not to speak Evil of, and defpife that Authority that reproved their Wickedness, and would have reclaimed them by gentle methods, if it had been poffible: It fhall be meant that the Apostle paffed this Cenfure on them, that they might be Difciplined or Inftructed by this Act of Difcipline to reform and recover from that Sin which caused their being put out of the Church. So that in this Inftance alfo the End of this Cenfure appeareth to have been not the Destruction of the Sinner, but his Reformation and Repentance to the faving of his Soul: that is, This was the End, fuppofing the Perfon under this Cenfure to regard the fame, and to Repent according ly; but indeed fuppofing him not to Re pent, he continued in the Power of Satan to which that Cenfure delivered him which put him out of the Church, and

[blocks in formation]

what the consequence of that must be as to the ftate of fuch a Man's Soul I need not fay for the Mind of every Man that hath been once instructed in the knowledge of a Chriftian, doth furely forebode .the Evil to come.

[ocr errors]

But I come again to the Business, between S. Paul and the Corinthians, when he comes to advise them to restore to the Communion of the Church the Perfon, whom he had before, as we have feen, required them to put away from among them, 2 Cor. 2.6. His Words are thefe. Sufficient to fuch a Man is this Punishment which was inflicted of many; So that contrariwise, ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, left perhaps fuch a one should be Swallowed up with overmuch Sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your Love towards him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether be obedient in all things. To whom ye for

.

ye give any thing, I forgive alfo; for if I for gave any thing, To whom I forgave it, for your fakes forgave I it in the Perfon of Chrift; left Satan fhould get an advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his de vices. I faid before that Tertullian was of Opinion that it was not the fame Man whom the Apostle commanded them to deliver to Satan in his first Epistle, and in

whofe

whofe favour he writes fo much in his Second: But as the whole Church was against Tertullian in this his Opinion, and in that which drove him to be of this Opinion, Namely, his not believing that the Apostle would, or that the Church therefore could admit' fuch a Sinner upon any Penance; fo likewife is this Opinion of his excluded by the exprefs Words of the Scripture. For to this end alfo did I write to know the proof of you, which fhew that this is the Cafe that he Writ of in his former Epiftle. The Cafe therefore was this: Upon S. Paul's first Epiftle he was delivered to Satan, The Church of Corinth being obedient to, and execu-. ting his Order, did that which the Apoftle had blamed them for not doing afore, 1 Cor. 5. 2. The Cenfure being Executed has this Effect, that the Proud Offender is become Humble, Sorrowful, and Penitent, feeks to the Church, that had Cenfured him, to be Receiv'd again among them; but those who acted on the Church's behalf not being forward to grant him admittance, because they had incurred blame for not doing their Duty in the Cenfure of him at the firft, he prevails with some of them however to fend to S. Paul on his behalf, and to let him know. his Sorrow and Repentance, which feems

« PreviousContinue »