Chapter V
The danger of those who being in church fellowship and communion, yet their
lives are inconsistent with such a relation.
The fourth ordinance of the gospel is the public censures of the church, consisting of admonition, rebuke, and excommunication. There is a great danger of a man living in lusts, having put himself under the capacity of these ; for God is engaged the sooner to bring thy sins to light, 1 Tim. v.
19, 20. He had given directions to Timothy to deal impartially in churchcensures, ver. 19, 20, and not to be rash in laying on of hands ; and then he concludes of both, ver. 24, 25, Some men s sins are open aforehand to judgment: aforehand, going before to judgment; and some men s sins follow after, namely, zlg xgitiv, unto judgment
: ver 25, Those that are otherwise cannot be hid. As I take it, it is spoken not of the day of judgment, but of that judgment that is made at receiving in an elder, or a member, which was anciently done by laying on of hands. Whoso sins, though they have escaped the cognizance of the church, yet because they have adventured to take upon them so great and sacred an office, they cannot be long hid, if they repent not and forsake them. In like manner, men living under the peril of the censure of the church (which he had spoken of, ver. 19, 20), if they will venture to go on to sin, and think still to escape the knowledge of man, yet because they live and have put them selves under so great an ordinance, as is the judgment of the church (which he there also speaks of), and fear not that God by his providential discovery may bring them under it, therefore, if their sins be not such as go before to judgment, for a long time through God s patience, yet God will in his
providence order it so that their sins shall follow after, ilc. zttffiv, unto judg ment. And so the meaning is, that if men have lived long in a sin, and have escaped the publishing of it to a church which doth profess the exercise of exact discipline, and is accordingly heedful of miscarriages as it ought to be, God engageth himself (if the person repent not) the sooner to give him up to such sins as shall follow after to judgment, so as their
iniquity, by reason of this dispensation, will find them out and cannot be hid. And upon the equity of that other coherence, namely, the respect to ordination and admission, this rule will in a proportion hold of this censure also. Now how dangerous a thing it is to be given up to the censure of the church, the apostle tells us, when he calls it a delivering up unto Satan, 1 Cor. v. Now if any will say, We will avoid this danger, and keep our selves out from such a bond, let them consider what follows : 1 Cor. v., Those without God judgeth, and will do it sufficiently. I take it those words do insinuate a great privilege that those within a church, who live in a subjection to a judgment, if they sin, have in comparison of those that
live without, be they heathen or Christian professors. For if they be
within, God forbears to judge them personally, till that means of the church hath been used, which, if neglected, he then falls on both, 1 Cor. xi. A man is under a protection (as it were), and God takes not the matter into his court, because it is under trial in another, which is a means to reclaim him ; but those that live without are immediately exposed to God s judging them, who will deal with them accordingly more severely
: As whore mongers and adulterers God will judge, Heb. xiii., &c. ; so that if any man will stay out to avoid being judged, he falls under a more severe court.
Take the last ordinance of a church, viz., church contribution and col-
CHAP. VI.] IN THE HEAKT AND LIFE. 319
lection for the saints, it being not a civil matter (as giving alms is) but an ordinance religious. It is a ministration, Xtirvcyta, 2 Cor. ix. 13, and it is reckoned up with prayers, and preaching, and breaking bread, Acts ii. 42, for so I understand that word, which is translated fellowship, and is carried
in the translation as if it were the fellowship of the apostles that were there intended. But it is xoivuvia, communication, namely, of goods, more largely mentioned in the verse after; and also in Heb. xiii. 16, Be not forgetful
tvtforfag xai Koivuviag, of doing good, and communicating. It is the very same word, as also in Rom. xv. 26, where it is translated, contribution to the saints.
1. I say, it being thus a spiritual ordinance and sacrifice, as all church-
offerings are (as Heb. xiii. 6, it follows, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased ), therefore, if men deal unworthily herein, they are in danger of having a greater curse hereby, perhaps not upon their estates, but in
their spirits. If you will take an estimate how heinously God takes dealing
falsely in this, because it is a matter of worship, you may see it in that
first example of a judgment in those primitive times executed on Ananias and Sapphira ; and thereby, as you may see how heinously God takes it, so also why it was so, not that they were bound to have given all their whole estates ver. 4, Whilst it remained, was it not thine own ? and
after it was sold, was it not in thine own power ? but they having dedi cated the whole in an open appearance to God, to withhold part was a
lying, not to man, but to God. It was not in a matter merely human, between man and man, as the promise that makes a debt is, or as a bar
gain between man and man, but the Holy Ghost (ver. 8) was the person with whom in that work they dealt, and with whom in all works of that nature we also deal now. And though God inflicts not such extraordinary punishments now upon men s bodies, yet you may from thence gather how much he is displeased at the like as a sin, and in what danger men s spirits
are, in such cases, of a spiritual judgment and curse, which is more usual under the gospel, and which accordingly men shall find at the latter day. Mat. x. 15, he threatens those who should contemn the gospel, not with a
temporal judgment, but (as if forbearing such under this dispensation) he threatens them with a greater and worse. Sodom and Gomorrah (says he) were punished with visible judgments, though extraordinary
: But it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for these in the day of
judgment. Till when he may defer it. When therefore thou drawest near
to God in this lowest duty of worship, yet because it is an offering to God, Mat. v. 23, ere thou bring thy gift to the altar, reconcile thyself to thy brother ; and by like reason, if thou be guilty of, or livest, in any sin, reconcile thyself to God, otherwise even this act of worship will provoke him the more.