Part 9
But, instead thereof, he takes one of a city, and one of a family, and brings them to Zion, takes not the nation, but selects some out of the nation
; and gives them pastors according to his own heart, as a greater privilege than that of the ark, and therefore it is meant of congregational assemblies; for to them pastors are fixedly and properly given to feed them with knowledge and understanding.
And if that every congregation enjoyeth a greater privilege than tho ark of the Lord, in having such pastors, then surely it should also be governed by them, as the synagogues also were by their rulers, who were called rulera of the synagogue, not of the synagogues; for each synagogue had more rulera than one for the government of them, as they were a synagogue,
Arg. V. If the seat of worship and government be commensurable, and of equal extent, then a single congregation, as it is the seat of worship, so of government, Now for worship, none else do meet but congregations; and if the temple, altar, and worshippers, be measured by the same line, Rev. xi., the power that is in the temple is likewise so measured.
If altar and judicature be of like extent also (as they are, since the end of discipline is to keep worship pure), then where the constant worship is, there should be constant discipline, especially if excommunication be a part of worship, as was said afore, as well as admonitions are.
It cannot be otherwise, but that the proceedings of the whole discipline, admonitions and all, should be before the whole church, which is as well to be edified by it as by preaching; and, therefore, particular congregations are to be the seat of it. Thus we shewed before, that the main end of a church was worship, and that discipline was the appendix thereunto, to keep the worship pure ; and that so Christ, under the gospel, had made the bounds of a church to be measured by that of worTHE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox III. ship: Rev. xi. 1, ' Measure the temple and the altar, and the worshippers ;" and go all that belongs unto it. And this worship and government, for the state of it, are of equal extent, commensurable one to the other, which is made out by this; that all sorts of churches that ever were, had worship and government of equal extent.
Before the law, when there was a church in the house, and it went in a family-way, as the worship was in the family, so the disciple* was in that family ; and excommunication was a casting out of that family ; so in Adam's family, it is said of Cain, that he fled from the presence of the Lord, that is, from his father's house.
Whenas God did make a nation a church, the church of the Jews (as it is called, Acts vii.) in the wilderness, they did set all their tents about the tabernacle, and so, as one church, they saw the sacrifices.
And when they were at Jerusalem, they had answerably a national worship, they had ordinances, as they were a national church; therefore the Sanhedrim was to sit in the place that God should choose, to be there for government, as well as he appointed the sacrifices to be there.
And for that moral worship in the synagogues, so far forth as they were the seat of worship, prayer, and reading the word, &c., so they had also casting out of the synagogues.
And although the Sanhe- , drim might make laws for what sins to do it, yet the exercise of it was by the proper rulers, who are called therefore rulers of the synagogue.
It is therefore Bains his argument against diocesan churches,} that there could be no such churches, because there was no public ordinances of worship, as was in the national churches of the Jews, unto which the males came.
And yet the episcopal government kept up this principle, for as they had a diocesan government, so they had a cathedral worship in the same place, as in a mother church, like that representative worship of sacrifices in Jerusalem; and they had set meetings at them, to which all came up; and therefore their principle in this was better than this of the presbyteries, for they had a worship and a government that was commensurable.
Obj. 1, The performing of acts of worship by 4 minister belongs to the power of order, but the power of jurisdiction is a further thing.
A minister may administer the sacrament, and perform a work of order alone, bat he cannot govern alone, but he must be joined with others; and therefore worship and government are not commensurable.
Ans. The question is not of the power, but of the extent of the state both of the worship and government.
He that is a minister, and can alone perform an act of public worship, yet he must do it in public congregation; and 80, although it be done alone by his person, yet not beyond the extent of a congregation, but still according to the limits and bounds of it.
Now the seat of government, and the extent thereof, is commensurable to the seat of worship; so as, although he cannot perform an act of government alone in the congregation, but with others, yet still those others are but to be those who belong to that congregation whereto he is a minister or an elder for performing acts of worship.
Obj. 2. The apostles had a latitude of power ovor all sort of churches, and therefore the extent of worship, and the power of government, are not . commensurable.
Ans. Although the apostles had, in their persons, power of government over all churches, yet still they exercised that power (for acts of cengure), but when they were in any of these congregations, not in a consistory out of those churches, but as personally present in the churches.
And therefore the apostle saith, ' When I come,' I will do so and so; and 'shall I come with a rod?' 1 Cor. iv. 19-21, And when they came to any particu- * Qa. 'discipline' !—Ep.
T Bains' Diocesan Trial, p. 69.
Caapr. IT] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. lar church, it was an apostolic privilege proper to them, which is not communicable to other elders ; they were, suumpsoBirsgor, 'fellow elders' (as.
Peter's phrase is, 1 Peter v.), in every one of those churches; and did for that time concur in the government of that church, though with the interest of an apostle.
So as still, de facto, the exercise of all their government was in a congregation ; and as they administered not the sacrament of the Lord's supper alone, or out of churches, so nor did they excommunicate, but as jomed with a particular church; nor did they choose officers or elders, but as present with churches, whom these were to be officers to.
They might give doctrinal directions to churches concerning government, in which they were infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost, but acts of government they performed not but in the churches themselves, and as concreted and becoming one with that particular church; and therefore the churches remained as distinet churches, notwithstanding they were under apostolical government, and many churches are nowhere called one church, because under an apostle.
Arg. VI. That a single congregation, with its elders, is an entiro seat of government, is proved from the nature of excommunication itself.
1, Excommunication relateth to communion, and communion with churches is either fixed, and in a constant way, or occasional.
To throw a man out of oecasional communion, is not excommunication, it is but a secondary act, that supposeth first to throw him out of a fixed communion.
It is but noncommunion, or denial of communion, and keeping of him out of it, -as all other remote churches may do.
And the execution of the act is from the power of Christ; and that promise which he hath made, 'I will be in the midst among you, when thus gathered together,' Mat. xviii. 20, whereas the way of presbytery classical excommunication is as if the congregation was gathered in the name of the preebyters, and with their power, and that they could promise to be in the midst among them.
Excommunication therefore, formally and properly, is a casting him out of a fixed communion ; therefore that church, which actually doth hold a fixed communion with him, hath that power, and to them properly must belong the casting of him out :
'Do not ye judge them that are within? saith the apostle, 1 Cor. v. 12.
And so far as any were within to them, so far they had power over them.
Now to that particular congregation, whereof a man is a member, a man is 80 within, in respect of a fixed communion, as to no church else in the world; there is therefore a power of throwing of him out, belonging to them, which belongs to no church, nor unto all the churches in the world.
Other ehurches can but throw him out of an occasional communion as he shall come to them, and therefore, answerably, their throwing of him ont must be bat occasionally, as he shall at any time offer to come to them; hence, therefore, the formal act of excommunication must needs be proper unto them whom he holdeth a fixed communion with.
Add to this that other ehurehes can throw him out but of that communion which he holds with them, and the communion ordinarily he holds with them, is but as being a member of a church associated with them, supposing such an association, and as far as their interest goes, so far their power may go, they may throw, him out of their association, but no further.
But excommunication is a throwing of a man out of a fixed communion of all ordinances for worship; now sueh a communion he holds not with other churches. They may indeed throw him ont of their own within, which is, for the fixed part of it, but a matter of association for government ; but the congregations within, are in respect of ordinary communion in worship.
Now, answerable unto their interest is their power, and therefore excommunication is to take him from _ THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boor II. the midst of them (' from among you,' 1 Cor. v. 18) with whom he did use to worship. Thevery import ofthe word excommunication is excommuni catu; the formal and direct act therefore of excommunication is to throw him out of that fixed communion which he had.
It is a casting out of all other churches consequently, yea, outof the visible catholic church consequently, but formally it is only out of that particular church whereof he is a member.
Other churches, by virtue of their communion together, may ratify it by approving it, but that church, which the act properly concerns in the formality of it, is a particular church whereof he is a member, and therefore, answerably, the formal power must lie there.
And although this government of Christ hath been never so much corrapted by a power set over congregations, yet still the act of excommunication, or at least the execution, hath been performed in the particular churches whereof a man is a member.
2. Where, and by whom that act is done that excommunicateth a man, there the power and the main of the power must lie, for the substance of the act, and there alone.
But in particular congregations, and by the elders of the people thereof, that act alone is done by which a man actually is cut off from communion with all other churches, and whereby he is excommunicated; therefore that particular congregation is tho only, or at least the main substantial subject of that power whereby a man is excommunicated.
We have an instance in the church of Corinth, when the apostle directs them to deliver that map unto Satan when they were met together.
Whether the man was excommunicated or no, it matters not; however, the direction was given, and the direction falls upon the very act iteelf, when and where it was actually to be executed and done, and in them it puts the power:
' When ye are met together in the name, and with the power of the Lord Jesus, deliver such a man to Satan,' 1 Cor. v. 4, 5.
There is the act, and there is the power, all met together, and he speaks of the. ultimate act of excommunication; and where, and in what meeting that is to be done amongst them, there the power resideth.
1. In all spiritual ordinances, the power is inseparable from the act ; and therefore to make the power whereby a man is excommunicated to lie in one assembly, and the act of excommunication to be performed in another, is to divide what Christ hath put together.
He that baptizeth hath the power of baptizing, and that preacheth of preaching, and so those that actually excommunicate of excommunication; and the act is more than the sentence.
If, therefore, they have the greater committed to them, they must needs have the less.
And, 2. Whom Jesus Christ betrusteth with the act, he must betrust them the j power, because his power, whereof theirs is but the execution, doth accompany their act
; and therefore Paul saith, 'when you are met with the power of the Lord Jesus, give such an one to Satan.'
It is not as in civil cases; there the power lies in the sentence, but here in the execution. And indeed, the ultimate sentence lies in the execution, and is all one with it, when in the presence of all the church it is said, We deliver this man to Satan. And, therefore, 8. In Scripture the power is expressed by the act.
Paul saith, ' Whom * I did deliver unto Satan ;' and so ordination is called the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. The power of the presbytery is expressly their act; and, therefore, where the act lies, the power must lie.
Now, we ask this question, Whether a man be actually excommunicated and delivered up unto Satan until he is so delivered up at a meeting of that particular church whereof he is a member, elders and people being present ?
'Weare not now inquiring what proceedings are to go before preparatory hereCaar. ILJ THE CHURCHES OF CHBIST. unto; but this is that we contend for, that where the act is done which ultimately excommunicates him, there the substance of the power lies.
Whereas it may be answered, that the execution is in the congregation, bat the sentence is in the presbytery; as in civil courts it is, where the man is sentenced by the judges, but actually executed by the sheriffs. We reply,
1. That instances of civil proceedings will not hold here.
For the sentence by the judge is that authoritative act, as by him that hath the power in law to cut the man off; but to execute the man, to put himto death, that is an act of nature which any man can do, though he that doth it is to do itlawfally, by virtue of the sentence ; but the act, whereby the man is in law
Killed, is the sentence, and therefore he is from that time civsliter mortuus, dead in law.
But so it is not in this spiritual act of binding of sin, and of delivering unto Satan; there must be a power and an authority that is in the persons, that doth accompany them, and that as met together.
And the execution of the act is from the power of Christ, and that promise which he hath made: 'I will be in the midst among you, when thus gathered together,'
Whereas the way of presbyterial classical excommunication, is as if the congregation was gathered in the name of the presbyters, and with their power, and that they could promise to be in the midst among them ;and however there may be manypreparatory acts unto it,yet the thing is not done till it be done by them that have the power; and, therefore, if the classical presbytery will challenge it, they must all be present, but if the congregation must do it, it is an evident argument that the power lies there.
2. If the classical presbytery had the power hereof, then when they do sentence him to be excommunicated, they ought actually to excommunicate him, and complete it ; for to say that the power should be in them and not the act, whenas those that do the act are to meet and gather together in the power of the Lord Josus, is very inconsistent.
If they do not actually excommunicate, what they do must be onlya doctrinal direction, that the man deserveth to be excommunicated, such as the apostle put forth in case of neglect, when he gave his judgment: ' I have judged already,' saith he, 1 Cor. v.
'Let such a one be delivered unto Satan,' &c. But he acknowledgeth the power tobe in them, for saith he, 'Do not ye judge them that are within?'
And therefore he saith not, [hath delivered him, but that he be delivered. And itis in this as in case, suppose of baptism, that a minister had neglected his duty to baptize one, and the apostle had sent to him to baptize him, and given his sentencesuchaone should be baptized, and should farther press it, Do not you baptize such and such a one? do not you use to doit? so he speaks here, 'Do not ye judge them that are within ?'
Do you not use todo it?
Now, as inthis case, the question will be, whether the power of baptizing lay in the apostle or in theminister that upon this doth baptize ? Certainly in the minister, and he doth thatby an immediate commission from Christ; for he that doth the substance of the act, in him the power lies, though he may be directed in a ease of neglect by an apostle when alive.
And so now, though a particular congregation in case of a neglect may be called upon and urged by other churches, yet still, in the one case as in the other, in them the power lies by whom the substance of the act is done.
Neither yet do we hereby intend to give that power to a classical presbytery that the apostle had over Corinth, bat only we allege it thus far, that though the apostle had power to command now when absent, and if he had been present, had power to have concurred with them in the very act, that yet still the power lay in them without the apostle to have proceeded, by whom the act was to be done, according to the apostle's direction.
8. According tc the presbyterial practice, it is evident that the power is .
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox III. not in them, but in the congregation ; for after that they have sentenced a man to be excommunicated, and it is to be supposed that his sin is ripe for excommunication, and that he is obstinate enough to be now excommunicated, then it should be presently acted and done, if the power were in them.
But they stay the execution of it in the particular congregation for three days.
They give him three admonitions more, and the people are to pray for him ; and go they do manifestly de facto hereby put the ultimate judgment of his impenitence into the congregation, and the ultimate act of execution also.
For if the man did repent, they were not to excommunicate him ; and because they judge him to continue impenitent, they do excommunicate him, according to the presbyterial practices.
Tf it be answered, as it is by some, that the sentence by virtue of which he standeth excommunicated is that of the classical presbytery, and that the elders of the congregations are but the pracones, they do not exercise the substance of the act, only declare and publish it, then we reply :
1. That here is more than a promulgation, not only because it is not presently done, but because other means of admonitions, as ordinances of Christ, are applied to him to bring him to repentance; andif so, it is apparent that when the classical presbytery intended him to excommunication, that he was then not fit for excommunication ; for why should these authoritative admonitions of his own elders come afterwards?
They may as well continue their admonitions publicly after his excommunication.
Now, if his sin were not fit for excommunication, so as they might take it upon their consciences, he ought not now to be excommunicated; then by virtue of their sentence he is not excommunicated when he is excommunicated, for they sentenced him when his sin was not ripe for it.
So that according to their own practices, they make the presbytery's act to be but a doctrinal discernment, that in such a case, if he continues thus and thus obstinate, he is to be excommunicated.
But 2. That which the elders in the congregation do is more than to be precones of the sentence of the presbytery, and their delivering of him to Satan actually is niore than a publishing, not only because they do authoritatively as elders admonish him after the presbytery's sentence (and if they do authoTitatively admonish him, certainly they do authoritatively also excommunicate him after their admonitions if he continues impenitent), but also because when it is done they call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and they do it in the name, and with the power, of the Lord Jesus.
If it were a mere promulgation, there needed no invocation as an act of theirs.
8. Again, if the form of the sentence whereby the elders of the congre- | gation do excommunicate him be considered, do not they say, We, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and with his power, deliver thee to Satan to excommunicate thee; yea, were not that congregation in Corinth to do so, which i the man belonged unto? Whereas if the classical presbytery had the power, and these were only the publishers, then the classical presbytery were only to use those words because the power was in them, and the ministers were only to declare that such an one was excommunicated by them in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And if go, then all the eldership of a congregation are to \ the classis, but even as curates are to the bishops ; and indeed the bishops' principles are more consonant to themselves than this, for they say that the act of excommunication is done and absolved, and perfected in their courte ; and that the curate doth only promulge it (as their manner is), but that the man is indeed excommunicated by the bishop.
But here there is a pretence of leaving the substance of the act to be formally done and executed by the | elders of the congregation, and yet a denial that a power to do it lies in Cuup. IIT] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. them, and the power to do it assumed to be in them, who yet profess they do not actually excommunicate.
4. If they were onlyprecones, then any man may do it, as well as the elders of his own church.
If it be objected that in a congregation itself, when it is done, it is done by one man that pronounceth it, the pastor of the place, or the like,
The answer is, 1. That as in prayer, when the pastor is the mouth of all the people unto God, he is but the mouth of those people that are present, and do join with him; and it is their act, and not the act of men absent; so it ishere: in this act he is the mouth of the elders, and the whole congregation ag present, as of God to throw this man out.
But to make the elders of the congregation, and the whole congregation, to be but the publishers of what the presbytery hath done when they were absent, this is indeed to make them mere publishers, which any man may do; yea, they themselves may do it by fixing it upon the church door.
The seventh argument, to prove that @ single congregation ts the entire seat of church power, because thus there appears a harmony in all the ecclesiastical
" Arg. As we proved that the constitution falls upon particular churches, by shewing how naturally all things fall out in that way, and what distortions are in the other, so for the confirmation of the complete power of particular churches for matter of government, we shall now proceed in the like way of argument.
For the upholding of the subordinations of congregational and classical assemblies, and of many congregations being under one common presbytery, made up ofelders fixed to several congregations, the presbyterial divines are forced to invent maltitude of distinctions and divisions, thereby to uphold their prineiples.
They are forced to make one church for worship and another church merely for discipline;a church real, which is of the saints, the body of the faithfal, that are a church to Christ, and a church representative, in their elders meeting in a classical assembly; a church incomplete and imperfect (such they make congregations)
; a church perfect and complete for government (such they make a classical presbytery); yea, indeed, as was observed before, they must make three sorts of churches to make up one:
1, a church of the faithful (for so the brethren are called in distinction from the elders) ; 2, the eldership of each congregation, a representative church thereof; and 8, a church classical, the elders of all those congregations assembled in one.
They must also be put upon finding out a double presbytery for ordering of government, one congregational, the other classical, when yet they are not able to give one note or character of such distinction in the Scriptures.
Yea, further, to answer our arguments, they have been fain to say that the elders of particular congregations have the relation of elders in sensu déviso to each congregation, but the relation only of an eldership én sensu conjuncto, as met in a classical presbytery, to all and each of these congregations.
And then also they must find out distinctions of the difference of duties, what the elders owe to a particular church, and what to all the congregations in common.
They must also make the same persons to be preaching elders in the exercise of their office to their particular congregations, and taling elders also in the exercise of their office to all the rest, and yet are not VoL. XI.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boos III. able to make any footsteps of any such distinction, or of any such boundary of duties.
And as the reformed churches would not have made that distinetion of those several sorts of elders under the New Testament, had they not had distinct and peculiar characters of some that ruled, of others that especially laboured in the word and doctrine,—Rom. xii. 8,
'He that raleth, let him wait on ruling; he that exhorteth, on exhortation ; he that teacheth, on teaching,'—and unless they had found these footsteps of distinction bounding their several offices, they would never have invented these several sorts without them ; 80 if there cannot be found like warrant for all the presbyterian distinctions, can they be able to say that Jesus Christ hath made these several sorts of churches, and these various reflections of elders and their duties, &c.?
And thus, whilst to them there are many bodies and many charches, and lords many and presbyteries many, our way is single, natural, uniform, and to us there is but one church, one presbytery, having mutual relation one unto another; one church for the seat of worship, the same church for the seat of discipline, and hereby all these groundless distinctions are in a few words taken away.
Now, as in the point of institution of congregational churches, this uniformity is a confirmation to us, and the contrary is an evidence of the falsehess of the constitution of the other; so when the point of power cometh to be disputed, what shall belong to each congregation, the observation of the like uniformity in ours, and distortion in theirs, confirmeth us that the power is completely and entirely in each congregation, having a particular eldership of itself.
As before they are put to distinguish, so now in this to part and divide the power between the congregations and these classical presbyteries, and that for ordinary government.
Their being out of the right way produceth manifold distortions; their administrations of the discipline, differing from the rules and practices held forth by Christ, and his apostles in their epistles, unto which the placing the power wholly and entirely, and completely, in a particular congregation, falleth uniform and suitable.
Presbyterial divines, finding that particular congregations were churches, and that as such they are intended in Mat. xviii., 'Tell the church,' for shame they could not take all power from them, but they must allot them some, because they were a church.
And yet because they could not uphold the constant and ordinary intermeddling (and that not by way of appeal) of a classical presbytery, which did challenge its primary cognisance, and right in excommunication, as well as the congregations, however, therefore, they
* divided the power, and they put part of the power in one, and' part in the other.
They put the sentence of excommunication in a classical church, and the execution of it in the congregational ; and so, indeed, they do make two sort of governments ordinary, for one and the same suit or cause or matter, and person to be proceeded against. The particular eldership of the congregation proceedeth so far as to admonish, and to suspend from the sacrament; and then when the man is obstinate, the classical congregation saith, Bring him to us ere you presume to excommunicate him, that we may admonish him again, and so he may be found further obstinate; and then, for the execution, carry him down again to the congregation, and let him be admonished before all by the elders thereof, and then again, if obstinate, excommunicate him.
Surely, if to complete excommunication, there had been such divided proceedings in Mat. xviii., Jesus Christ would have said,
Go tell the churches, and not the church; for it cannot be denied but that these are distinct churches, the congregational and presbyterial.
Whereas, to us, as there is but one congregation and presbytery, so but one complete and '
Cup. IIL.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST.
"147 eatire government, whereof the congregation is the seat.
And however the knowledge of the matter may be first given to the elders, and by way of preparatory cognisance they may consider of it (to cut off accusations impertinent, and apparently defective), yet therein they proceed not by authority; but all that they do in an authoritative way, is done before the whole congregation, to the edification of all; and so there is but one sort of public proceeding, whereas our presbyterian brethren have many.
Now, to demonstrate the distortions of administrations in their way, and the nullity of founding any such divisions and parting of government and proceedings, we present these considerations.
1, According to their own principles and practices, this division of power, and proceeding, to complete an act of government and excommunication, is not paralleled with, or uniform to, the power and the proceedings, in those other subordinances of churches or assemblies which they would have erected for government.
It is known that they make five several subordinations:
1, ecumenical ; 2, national; 8, provincial; 4, classical; 5, congregational.
And all these are built upon this one ground(ihe same that a congregation pats in for), that they are all churches, only the greater still having power over the lesser, as is affirmed; they are cast into these-subordinations. Now, then, let but the same be granted to congregations in this its lowered condition; let it but have the same proportion of subordination to itself, in comparison of classical, that the rest have one to another; let all these contignations, that consist of lower and upper rooms, be but uniform in this model ; and then, until a congregation doth miscarry in its excommunication, it must needs have all the power within itself.
For classical and provincial, which are the two next subordinations, each to other, provincial and national, do not divide a power of proceeding, to complete one act of government between them (so as the classical should have one part, and the provincial another; or the provincial one part, and the national another; and so as after the lower hath performed his part, it should be broughtto a higher, to complete the sentence) ; but each of them have an entice and complete power to perfect what they take in hand to excommunication; and matters are carTied from one to another, but only by way of appeal, and that too after they have completed the sentence and execution, having fall power to excommunieate within themselves.
Why, then, should the congregational, in its conjunction and subordination to and with a classical presbytery, be more injured than all the rest?
Why should the classical alone put in to divide the lands with them, and go half, and the greater half; and not suffer the congregational to perfect and complete the sentence of excommunication, as well as any of the other, and so all to be brought (if at all) only by way of appeal to them ?
Whereas now all is brought to the classical presbytery, from the congregational, in a way of imperfeation and deficiency of power to complete the sentence. And this is the greater injury, inasmuch that one of the great arguments, that (until of late, and of late also) hath been pleaded for the power of classical presbyteries, and so of synods, is: bat from the analogy of the congregation's right, that what. power they have over a brother, a classis should have over a congregation (as in our kingdom, the plea of inheTitance of the eldest son of a yeoman is the same with that of nobles and gentry; yea, and in the throne itself), But why alone should the poor congtegations be made copyholders, when all the rest are free and entire in their own acts ofjudicature.
2. Our presbyterian brethren, by this, makes two courts ofjudicature for one and the same cause, which is not ordinarily found amongst men.
Kt is true, indeed, in haman courts, the lower have only lesser matters or faults THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox II. committed to them, debts of such a value; and higher courts have those of an higher nature, or a greater value.
But look what matters are committed to them, they are able to pass a final and eomplete sentence upon them, and have power to execute it, if an appeal be not made; and if once a suit he put in, they have power to end it, else it is no court.
But here now the congregational elders are allowed to intermeddle, and have authority in all causes, even those that are the greatest, and the most heinous sins, that deserve excommunication, without any controversy and difficulty ; but then they are allowed to proceed but so far in it, and then to bring it to the classical assembly for sentence, where all must be heard over again, ere they can proceed to a sentence; and then it is brought to the people, and there it is acted over again. And thus, as they make two sorts of churches, one for discipline and another for government, and part the seat of government and discipline, so, for to complete an act of one and the same discipline, they make two several courts; and that not by parting them, by distribution of causes of less and of greater moment only, but of acts of judicature.
And whereas the classis pretends that it is the perfect and complete church, and the cangregational imperfect, according to these practices it makes nothing more perfect than the congregational doth, as the law did not; bat when the case is brought to this same perfect church, yet it is forced to send the party down again to the congregational (whieh is the imperfect church), there to have the sentence completed.
8. Whereas the apostles, in their rales for public admonitions, do make them to be two or three; Titus iii. 10, ' An heretic, after one or two admonitions, reject' as obstinate.
This way of proceeding makes three sort ofpublic admonitions, to the number of six or seven.
It makes three obstinacies, and three public sentences against a man that is excommunicated.
First, he is admonished by a particular eldership {and we would know whether those be not public admonitions, yea or no, such as the apostle intendeth
; which is done by a public court, to which we presume they will say, that all the people may come, and in that respect it is to be accounted public; or if not, yet that which is done by public persons, in a public judicature, is public admonition).
Then, before they bring him to the classis, they must judge and censure him as obstinate, and that by a major vote, or he is not further to be brought (and we believe they will not censure him to be obstinate, unless he hath had one or two admonitions, and that by them); there is the first obstinacy.
Then he is brought before the classical presbytery, who are to sentence him to be excommunicated (which we believe they will not do, unless they also have, by admonitions, tried whether he hath been obstinate and impenitent, or no, upon those means which they are to use also, which is admonition) ; then he is brought before the congregation, there he is admonished again over and over.
And is it for the good of the man, or is it for the satisfaction of the people, that they may see him obstinate, that he hath so good admonitions given him?
It cannot be merely for the satisfaction of his obstinacy, unless these admonitions can be supposed fit to work upon him.
And then again, in the third place, he is to be judged obstinate after all those, or else he is not be excommunicated; for if he repented after all these, they are to forbear.
And we may add, that they must needs make a judging of as many repentances for his absolution; and the judging: of his repentance must be a personal experience.
Thus they multiply public proceedings beyond the rule, whereas the proportion of Christ's patience seems to be set.
4. How doth the dividing of things thus retard their proceedings in cage of open qnd manifest scandals!
How must needs so many removes rather Cuuap. IIT.} THE CHUROHES OF CHRIST. harden the man than soften him, and instead of bemg a means of doing him good, be a vexation to him!
The pretence is, that hereby scandal is avoided if the party repents ; but the truth is, this enlargeth it, for either the scandal is a thing commonly known in the congregation of the people, and then it is best to have it examined and cleared, and that before them presently, if it may be, either by his repentance afore them, that. they may be witnesses thereof, or by his appearing innocent.
If it be not known commonly and ordinarily abroad, it is more scandal to have it brought to strangers: than to have it to be kept in his own church; especially if that those of all the churches (who are interested in what the elders of the classical presbytery do) or any of them, may be present at pleasure.
6. This presbyterian way of excommunication causeth ordinances to be misplaced, a less effectual after a more effectual, for those admonitions by his own elders before the congregation, being the last (according to order of nature in all remedies, according to Christ's order and. degrees of proceeding in Mat. xviii., and according to God's order in his dealing with us), must be supposed more powerfully effectual than the first.
And yet, if the power of sentencing the man be in the classsical presbytery, by virtue of which he is excommunicated, that must be supposed to-be more effectual to bring him to repentance.
And then, also, they let their classical admonitions.be the last before excommunication, whereas if those before the congregation be acknowledged to be the more effectual, then where the more effectual admonitions, according to the ordinance of Christ, are supposed to lie in order to excommunication, there the power of excommunication must be supposed to lie also.
, 6. A sixth distortion is, the deformity that is occasioned by putting an interest into those two sorts of churches, congregational and classical, in the point of excommanication, and dividing the power between them, one for the sentence, the other for the execution; which will appear from that interest the people have, commensurable with the power that the elders are to have.
We speak not now of joining in the sentence of excommunication, and of suffrage in the judgment, which will make a distinct argument, and is as strong as any of the rest, for power of excommunieation to be proper and peculiar to a congregational church, and to prove that whatever other power classical presbyteries or synods pretend to, yet of all other they can claim no interest in this, because in them there is wanting one sort or kind of judges into whose hands God hath put the power.
But suppose for the Present that the whole people have but an interest of presence only at the admonitions that are to be given to the party afore excommunication, and at the act of excommunication itself, and give them but the lowest kind of consent thatmay be, a tacit consent, when the act is to be done; yet allow
. them to be present, that thereby such a tacit consent maybe held forth, and that they may be edified thereby, and that by mourning over the party his heart may be broken, and the more wrought upon, and their consciences may be satisfied in the justness of his excommunication, because that they are to join in the exeeution of it, and not so much as to eat with him afterwards.
Now this interest, both presbyterian principles and preachers do give and allow unto the people of that particular church, whereto he doth belong.
Yea, the papists themselves, who do hold that what is done in the conStegation is but the promulgation of the excommunication already completed in the bishop's consistory, yet give so much to the people, to that particular congregation whereof he is a member, that there should be a protulgation.
See the Rhemist's notes on 1 Cor. v.
But presbyterian Principles do give more, for they will not excommunicate if the people be THE GOVERNMENT OF (Boor It.
, against it ; yea, a whole national assembly, if they should determine it, would yet stop the execution if the people be against it.
And therefore we argued afore from dividing discipline itself, and from the sentence of excommunication being given ito the presbyterian classes, and the execution unto the elders in the congregations, so we shall now argue from the deformity or distortion that is between the pewer given to the elders of those churches as one church, compared with the interest ef the people of these churches considered as one chureh also.
The interest that these classical elders come to have together with the elders of the congregation in the sentence, must be because that they are elders of all those congregations as of one church.
For the strength of the argument that is alleged by the presbyterial divines for such a classical eldership, is, that many congregations make one church, whereof these elders in common are the representation ; and when they pronounce the sentence of excommunication, as elders of all those congregations, as one church, which they are an eldership unto, and by that one individual act of theirs, the man is authoritatively, and (so far asconcerns the interest of elders) in @ special manner, excommmunicated out of all those congregations whereto they are an eldership, as well as out of his own (so far as the sentence goes) in such a special manner, as belongeth not to the next churches of the presbyteries about, but by virtue of that fore-mentioned special relation.
And this common eldership, in this sentence of theirs, must either have the relation of an eldarship only to that particular church whereof this man is a member, so as that particular church and that common eldership make up the adequate relation of church and eldership, in and for this their act, or this eldership hath a relation to all the congregations. if the first be asserted, then there would be so many several relations of elderships and churches as there are churches upon occasion.
For this common eldership, and this particular church, would be one church in this act for this time, and for this man's excommunication, and they would be another church at another time, in relation to another man's excommunication, in another particular church, which were absurd. And if they act in this act es a common eldership to all the congregations as ene church, then the sentence doth formally cast the man (so far as the sentence goes) out of all those churches as well as out of his own, and by one single entire individual act they do, as elders to this church, excommunicate him formally out of these churches, and but virtually only, and consequently, out of all other churches belonging to other presbyteries, as out ef the universal itself.
And so far as the power of the sentence reacheth in this common classical presbytery, he is afterward cast out executively in that particular church whereof he is more especially a member, by the same way of authority by which he is cast out of that one church whereto he doth belong.
For these classical elders, being in their vote a church representative, they represent that church whereof the man is a member, as making one with all the rest of the churches.
Now, then, make these three things proportionable : 1, make this interest of the people of all these churches, in their kind and relation, proportionable to the interest of the elders to all these churches, in their kind and relation, these making one church, and they being but a common eldership, because these are one church; and 2, make the interest of execution but answerable to the interest of sentence; yea, 8, make the interest of the elders of that particular church whereof the person is a member, but answerable to the interest of the people of that particular chureh whereof he is a member; and there will appear so great a distortion in the presbyterian
Caup. TIT.) THE CHUROHES OF CHRIST. government, thus sharing with the congregational, as will confate and overthrow it, and euch an uniform in the congregational as will establish it.
1, As for the first, there is all the reason in the world, that if these classical elders do lay the pretence to their common power and authority, because these churches are one church (and they are all one church in respect of the people as well as of all the elders), if this be the foundation of their plea, if it ariseth from this relation and respect, then look what interest the elders as elders can pretend to as one church, being one chorch representative, that individual and like interest must the people that are one church also lay claim to; for there is a disproportion, a great and a manifest disproportion, in giving that to the elders as eldera of a church, that is not given to the people according to their proportion as a church.
As then by these elders in common, the sentence of excommunication goes forth, and the man is admonished by them as elders to bring him to repentance, and this is s common act of that whole eldership, making s church to all these churches, ao the people must be present at these or some other admonitions of the person (and that both for their edification and fortowork repentance in the party), that their tacit consent by presence might be given, and that they(peeing they are to execute it) might be satisfied in his being cast out.
If, indeed, the people had, as # church, no interest at all, then we acknowledge this argument would wholly fail, and these elders must have the whole fall and etire power to give sentence, to execate, to admonish, and all were to be done there in the classical sembly, and nowhere else, but the whole business would be there completed.
(1.) If it be said, first, that the power of sentencing, and 0 of the act of excommunication, is performed in this common presbytery, and that what is done in the particular congregation whereunto he belongeth, is but the rromulgation of it;
Besides what was said against that before, this further here may be added, that the interest which the people have is not merely to have it promulged before them, but that they may be edified, and that they knowing the party, he having lived amongst them, may mourn over him, yea, and bewail that sach a seandal is fallen amongst them, whereby their ordinances and communion was in danger of being defiled, &., and that the man hereby may be wronght upon; yea, and it is necessary that the man be brought afore that church, where he is personally to be excommunicated.
Now, all this is more still than bare promaigation of the sentence, for that might be done whether he were present or absent.
Yet still, if there be an interest of promulgation, let it be in all the churches, and all these churches as met in one common chaureh, as the elders themselves are.
Or if there be an interest of being edified by the admonitions, let it be in all the churches.
But how can this be ?
If in each congregation apart, how will your admonitions be more maltiplied, that were multiplied enow afore?
And if in common, how ean they meet, as presbyteries are cast?
Or when did they ever?
(2.) If, secondly, it be said, that it is promulged in that fixed church whereto he doth belong, in regard they have a special primary interest, because usually he receiveth the sacrament there, we shall speak to that under the third particular, by and by.
Only for the present consider, that if the interest of people and elders be made up proportionally, go as that church hath « primary interest in the person, because he hath a fixed communion in the sacrament with them, which, if he there partake, would be ordinarily defiled; and other churches have but a secondary and remote interest, as genus bath to the individuum, whereas this particular congregation is as the | THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boos III. species to this individuum ; then let the elders of the classical presbytery, to make things commensurable, acknowledge to have a remote and secondary interest also in their power to sentence him, and so let him come to them but at second hand, Or to make the commensurableness yet nearer, a8 in the matter of promulgation, the people of all the other churches have but a promulgation at second hand, by hearsay, and have no interest of presence at all; so answerably, let these elders of other churches have bat the like share in that power, and the controversy is at an end ; for then, as it is not at all promulged in other churches, so the man would not be at all sentenced in the classical presbyteries.
But if they challenge the primary interest, and that the power by which he is sentenced belongeth unto them, then letthe people of all those churches be acknowledged to have the like primary interest of promulgation also, because that they are the greater number in comparison of the church whereof he is a member, that being but a part, the other the whole, and therefore the congregation must have the lesser principal interest therein. a 2. And secondly, if that the act of excommunication, that is done in his particular church, is the formal act of excommunication, by which actually he standeth excommunicated and delivered up to Satan, and not until then ; let but this act of execution be but commensurable to the sentence, and then, as the sentence was denounced by those classical elders,'as making elders to all those congregations as ene church, so also should the execution be; and so the man must be actually excommunicated, over and over, as often as there are many partieular churches to that presbytery.
3. And thirdly, if the interest of the elders of that church make an eldership to that congregation, and be made commensurable with the interest of the congregation, the one as elders, the other as people, then, first, as this church hath the primary and the fixed interest, and such a peculiar interest, as all the churches about him have not, viz., an interest of communion suitable to his casting out
; aa he had a fixed communion with them, it is therefore a fixed casting ont, which is properly the act of excommunication
; and for these reasons their consent is so required as none of all the churches about, and their satisfaction to be sought, so as of none of all the churches about.
Now, then, answerably, let the eldership of thie particular charch have but a like power of an eldership im their relation to them as a church, and then the people's interest being consent, where consent only is required, and the elders' interest being authority and the sentence, it will follow that, as the liberty of consenting is only in this congregation, 80that the authority of sentencing should only be in these elders.
And as other churches do but declare their offence, if things have not been rightly administered, so the elders of other churches should do no more.
At leastwise, as the consent of this people is actually required, which is not of all the other churches, and as without which, because of their interest, the classical congregation
: will forbear the execution of excommunication, yea, a whole assembly will; 80, then, let the elders of this congregation, when they meet in this classical presbytery, have but the like privilege; that if they do dissent, and think the man is not to be sentenced, or be excommunicated, the whole classical presbytery should not have power to proceed to sentence.
For will not you give as much to the elders in government, as elders of that church, as to the people?
Will you prefer the interest of the people, which is otherwise laid 80 low, before the interest of the elders, that are over thom in the Lord?
And if that the elders of that church should have this prerogative in the classical presbytery, the power thereof would soon come to nothing, without disputing against it.
And in this case, these classical elders are not a presCuar, IV.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. bytery im common, but the pastor or eldership of the particular congregation would have some kind of episcopal power in this presbytery, having a negative among them.
Or suppose that the elders of his own congregation deny to promulge the sentence, and actually to excommunicate the man, will you not give them the ministerial interest of elders in the execution of the sentence of excommunication,as the elders incommon had in the sentence?
Or will you send other elders to do it ? If so, then they, in that act, are an eldership to them only.
The eighth, ninth, and tenth argument, to prove a congregational church to be the due subject of ectlesiastical power ; because admonitions are to be given, and excommunication to be administered, in the presence of such a church.
Arg. 8. If, farther, the presence of the people in the ehurch is to be the seat of all authoritative admonitions that go before the sentence of excommunication, made by the elders to them that are accused of public sin and scandal, for their edification, and if the act of excommunication is to be (as was granted) afore them, then the seat of the power of excommunication is not in classical elders by Christ's ordination, but in elders that are elders of a particular eongregation.
The reason of the consequence is clear, because the partyis to be sentenced to be excommunicated upon his being judged obstinate, and he is to be judged obstinate after admonitions.
That, therefore, whieh is the seat or place in which these admonitions are to be given, is also to be the seat of the judgment of his obstinacy, and of the sentence thereupon.
It were strange that the admonitions and other proceedings that make way should be public, and the judgment and sentence should be private.
It is so in no public courts.
And if the partieular congregation be the seat of the antecedent acts, the admonitions, and of the consequent act, the act of excommunieation itself, it were as strange that only that immediate* act of the sentence should be privately done by the classical elders, and not afore the people.
Besides, that the classical elders are not to sentence, is evident by this, becausé those that have the power to admonish, surely they must have the power to sentence.
And therefore, if the classical elders eannot nor do not come to perform the acts of admonition before the people, then they cannot be those that, accordingto the Scriptures, have interest in the sentence as elders.
Neither can they be that church which our Saviour Christ speaks of, Mat. xviii., because that the admonitions of that chureh are expressed as liable to be neglected, and therefore they must be supposed present at the admonitions.
And as the apostle too commends itas an ordinance, that the admonition should be before the people, 1 Tim. v. 20, so elassical elders cannot be present.
_ Now, to prove that particular congregations are the seat of public admoni- ~tions, there is that plaee in 1 Tim. v. 20, whieh gives evidence, 'Them that Sin' (saith he) 'rebuke before all, that others also may fear.'
It is evident here that he doth give direction to Timothy eoncerning church proceedings and keeping of a spiritual eourt, and therefore in the verse before gives directions about receiving an accusation, and how that accusation must be proved, by two or three witnesses ; and he speaks of all such public admonitions or tebukes as are to follow upon the receipt of the accusation, when it is made evident by witnesses, and of such admonitions likewise as are in order to ex- 'communication, and for such sins as will deserve excommunication, if men be
* Qu. 'intermediate'?—Ep.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boog III. obstinate (for if for any other sins, then certainly for those), and it is of sins in case of public scandal which are the subject of excommunication ; therefore he saith, 'Them that sin rebuke afore all,' then when a man's sin is public and comes to be taken notice of afore all.
Now he speaks to Timothy, that was an evangelist, and under him to all church officers, to the end of the world, when evangelists (who were extraordinary ministers) should be removed ; and as other directions that are given to hit do concern tho eldership of congregations in after ages, so also this, to teach them how to behave themselves in the house of God.
Now with the same breath that he doth give them power and warrant to rebuke when accusations are brought orderly to them, he withal directs (and his directions fall chiefly thereon) where these rebukes should be, not privately, but afore all; and what all?
Not afore all that are their elders only, for they are to rebuke thenr afore all, that allmay fear.
Surely therefore it is intended for the benefit, not only of the elders, but of all the people.
If it be said that this place is to be understood but as that of the ald law, when @ malefactor was to be put to death, it was that all might hear and fear ; and go these admonitions may be given privately in the consistory, and yet all may hear of it and fear.
The answer is, that there is this difference between executing of corporal punishment and giving of spiritual admonitions, that the terror of spiritual admonition doth not lie in the hearsay, but it works by the people's personal hearing of it, and it is ordained s0 todo.
The power of that ordinance (as of preaching) lies in personal hearing, and as faith cometh by hearing, go this fear must come by hearing also; otherwise it were all one as to say such a man preached a comfortable sermon that all might be comforted, or he preached the law that all might be terrified, and yet should mean that all those that were at the sermon should have comfort in it or be terrified by it.
Therefore, as those that are wrought upon to fear must be wrought upon by the admonitions, so it must be by being personally present and hearing of them.
If it be said that it is in a classical assembly done ina place so public, and in a court so open, where all may come if they please, we reply that the apostle doth not only say that it should be done in a place where all may come, but he lays it as a duty upon Timothy to do it in a place where ail do come, for otherwise one of the great ends of admonition is lost; he bids him rebuke them that sin afore all, ' that all may fear.'
If, therefore, our presbyterian brethren will attain the end of their admonitions (that all may fear), it must be done where all do use to meet; and if so, then either their classical elders must come and meet in the particular congregations, or the particular congregations must come to them, and so all the company ofpeople of the classical church must meet, women as woll as men; for they are capable of that particular part of edification, of fearing, and why should they be excluded the benefit of it?
And whether the proceedings to excommunication according to our own way, which is for the party to have his own eldera, before his own people, judicially to examine the fact and to give public admonitions, edged with all sorts of Scripture, to bring him to repentance ; and if he remain obstinate in the view of all, then for him to be excommunicated, or if he repents, to have that repentance appear upon the place afore all (which all suit best, and fallinwith the congregational way) whether that this doth not agree more with right reason, and all the ends that can be supposed of examination, admonitions, and excommunication, either to work upon the party, or to work upon others, or for the fairness and equity of the Lee rather than the way of the classical presbytery, let any rational man judge.
Cuap. IV.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST.
For what hath been said of excommunication or admonition, and the ends of them, or any other end that the Scripture holds forth therein (that go before or accompany excommunication) they are better attained in this congregational government than in the other.
As, 1, for the examination of the person, that the evidence of the fact, in a jadiciary way, should be before his own people, and by his own elders, is every way most equal, because that they are to join in the casting of him out, and in the execution of the sentence afterwards, and are therefore to be satisfied of the justness of his being cast out; and there is that proper communion they have held with, viz. a fixed communion, which no church else on earth can pretend to.
And if the people must be satisfied at any time, if after the sentence by hearsay, and by relation (as the presbyterians themselves acknowledge), it will much more satisfy them before, when they hear the person himeelf examined, and all that he can say. And if that be true of Cyprian, quod omnes tanget, ab omnibus ¢ractari debet, that which concerns all, the whole community, it ahoald be handled and transacted by all; and if that were not true, yet surely this, that what concerns all should be handled afore all.
The like, 2, holds for those public admonitions that are to be given, wherein also the people have an interest, that they may be edified thereby, as well as by preaching; forwhat is discipline or public admonitions buta public application of the truths of the word of God to the conscience of a scandalous sinner, to warn others and to bring him unto repentance? fo as indeed acts of discipline-admonitions are the most pastoral sermon, and 60 are a part of the worship of God, which therefore the people of his own church must have a peculiar interest in, as they have in other sermons.
8. If it be looked at that the man is tobeshamed as a means to bring him to repentance, as in 2 Thes. iii. 14; to have all these examinations and admonitions, and to have all transacted that concernsa scandalous sin before the whole church, tendeth more to this.
Neithercan he be thought obstinate tntil such time as he hath this means (which we see God hath sanctified) in 4 spiritual way applied to him.
In word, for the whole woe say, as Baines long since said (and it hath a reason in it, therefore we quote it), that when censure is the most sharp spiritual medicine, it were ill with our churchif he (speaking of their pastor) who is resident always amongst them as the spiritual physician, should never have the power of administering it.
That which he saith of the pastor, to whom he gives the chief stroke in it, we say of allthe elders of a congregation that are continually resident with it.
Tf it be said that, afore he is put to this public shame before the congregation, he should be authoritatively admonished by the eldership to see first how that would work, we reply, 1, That either his sin is notoriously known to the whole congregation already, res famosa, as was the ease of the incestuous Corinthian; and then it is fit % should be brought instantly to the congregation, that he may be thamed ; neitheris# to any end that the elders should deal in the case
Privately with him; but as the scandal is public, the admonition should be public also, even from the first.
Or suppose his sin be more private, then if the private means which Christ hath appointed hath not been used by those that bring the aecusation, as telling it first to himself and exhorting him to tepentance ; and if that could not gain him, then taking two or three or more, who also have dealt with him, and yet could not gain him to repentance ; in this ease also the elders are not to meddle in it before the charch till such timeas those means have been used, for no man's sin is to be brought to , them till he hath passed through those ways and means which Christ hath appointed; which being done, then indeed the elders may admonish him,
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boos III. having thas the cognisance of it; but yet therein they are not to deal as an eldership in a judiciary way, but as those two or three brethren who are to be called to admonish him should proceed; though even such admonitions from elders would perhaps have more authority, in respect of their relation, than those of private brethren.
But in case that a man hath passed through all these means, and still is obstinate and impenitent, and hath stood out Christ's proceedings, now it is the man's own fault that his sin should thus be brought to light, and now nothing will cure him but the shame of it by public admonitions before all.
Ans. 2. If (for the tenderness of his shame) he is first to be dealt withal by the elders before he be brought to the congregation, yet not by the classical elders, who are strangers to him, who, if they keep an open court, as they ought to do (as all other courts are), whither any one may come, then if not the shameof his sin, yet the dishonour of it will be greater
: this way than the other, whilst it is kept within the compass of his own church, and of these who are his brethren, and have known his converse, and have known also his graces.
And that shame he shall have thus before strangers will be a means to harden him, whereas the shame that he shall have before his own people will work more kindly, and be a means to melt him.
Ans. 8. The presence of his own people in all these proceedings, when he is thus convieted of the sin, when he is thus admonished, and upon obstinacy cometh to be excommunicated, serveth to a farther double end, both as it respects themselves (so as no church, nor no elders else whatsoever) and as it respects the person also, and his good.
For it respects the congregation themselves, both by virtue of that special relation to, and communion they have with him as ene body to Christ; and therefore they are to sympathise with him, to be humbled together with him for his sin, to bemoan and bewail him and themselves, that such a punishment, even as to them, should befall them, by such a sin falling out amongst them.
' You are puffed up,' saith the apostle, 'you have not mourned,' 1 Cor. v. 2.
That law is to take hold on them, in respect of this proper near relation which Paul giveth: 1 Cor. xii. 26, 'If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular;' that is, the chureh of Corinth being a particular body, have a more special relation one unto another more than to any other churches.
And this mourning, and the like, is to shew themselves clear of that matter, which otherwise would be a sin of that body; and as in all other relations, members of a nation mourn for the sins of a nation, members of a family for the sins of 4 family, so especially in this nearest special relation of all other, each member is to mourn and sorrow for the sins of a member as if it were the whole's ; because a dishononr is thereby reflected also upon the whole, and an anger of God expressed against the whole ; for even church sins make God to be angry with particular persons.