IX. Of Ecclesiastical Discipline.

1. As no commonwealth can flourish or long endure without good laws, and sharp execution of the same; so neither can the396 Church of God be brought to purity, nor be retained in the same, without the order of Ecclesiastical Discipline. This is required for reproving and correcting these faults which the civil sword doth either neglect or may not punish. Blasphemy, adultery, murder, perjury, and other capital crimes, worthy of death ought not properly to fall under censure of the Church; because all such open transgressors of God's laws ought to be taken away by the civil sword. But drunkenness, excess (be it in apparel, or be it in eating and drinking), fornication, oppression of the poor by exactions, deceiving of them in buying or selling by wrong mete or measure, wanton words and licentious living tending to slander, do properly appertain to the Church of God, to punish as God's Word commandeth.

But, because this accursed Papistry hath brought such confusion into the world that neither was virtue rightly praised nor vice severely punished, the Church of God is compelled to draw the sword, which of God she has received, against such open and manifest offenders, cursing and excommunicating all such (as well those whom the civil sword ought to punish as the others) from all participation with her in prayers and Sacraments, until open repentance manifestly appear in them. As the order of Excommunication and proceeding to the same ought to be grave and slow, so, being once pronounced against any person of what estate and condition that ever he be, it must be kept with all severity. For laws made and not kept engender contempt of virtue, and bring in confusion and liberty to sin. Therefore we think this order expedient to be observed before and after excommunication.

If the offence be secret and known to few, and rather stands in suspicion than in manifest proof, the offender ought to be privately admonished to abstain from all appearance of evil. If he promises to do this, and to declare himself sober, honest, and one that feareth God, and feareth to offend his brethren, then may the secret admonition suffice for his correction. But if he either contemns the admonition, or, after promise made, do show himself no more circumspect than he was before, then must the minister admonish him; to whom397 if he be found inobedient, the Church must proceed according to the rule of Christ, as after shall be declared.

If the crime be public and such as is heinous, as fornication, drunkenness, fighting, common swearing, or execration, then ought the offender to be called into the presence of the minister, elders, deacons, where his sin and offence ought to be declared and aggravated,²⁶⁵²⁶⁵Their enormity emphasised. so that his conscience may feel how far he hath offended God, and what slander he hath raised in the Church. If signs of unfeigned repentance appear in him, and if he require to be admitted to public repentance, the ministry may appoint unto him a day when the whole Church conveneth together, that, in presence of all, he may testify the repentance which before them he professed. If he accept, and with reverence make testimony, confessing his sin, condemning the same, and earnestly desiring the congregation to pray to God with him for mercy, and to accept him into their society, notwithstanding his former offence, the Church may and ought to receive him as a penitent. For the Church ought to be no more severe than God declareth Himself to be, who witnesseth that, in whatsoever hour a sinner unfeignedly repenteth, and turns from his wicked way, He will not remember one of his iniquities; and the Church ought diligently to avoid excommunicating those whom God absolveth.

If the offender, called before the ministry, be found stubborn, hard-hearted, or one in whom no sign of repentance appeareth, then must he be dismissed with an exhortation to consider the dangerous estate in which he stands; with the assurance that, if the ministry find in him no other token of amendment of life, they will be compelled to seek a further remedy. If he within a certain space show his repentance, they must present him to the Church as before is said.

But if he continue in his impenitence, then must the Church be admonished that such crimes are committed amongst them, and that these have been reprehended by the ministry, and the persons provoked to repent; also, because no sign of repentance appeareth unto them, that they could not but signify unto the Church the crimes, but not the398 person, requiring them earnestly to call to God to move and touch the heart of the offender, so that suddenly and earnestly he may repent.

If the person malign, then, on the next day of public assembly, the crime and the person must be both notified unto the Church, and their judgment must be required, if that such crimes ought to be suffered unpunished amongst them. Request also would be made to the most discreet and to the nearest friends of the offender to travail with him to bring him to knowledge of himself, and of his dangerous estate, and a commandment be given to all men to call to God for the conversion of the impenitent. If a solemn and a special prayer were made and drawn for that purpose, the thing should be the more gravely done.

On the third Sunday, the minister ought to inquire if the impenitent have declared any signs of repentance to any of the ministry. If he hath, the minister may appoint him to be examined by the whole ministry; either then, instantly, or at another day affixed to the consistory.²⁶⁶²⁶⁶Appointed diet of the Church Court. Should the guilty person's repentance appear, as well of the crime as of his long contempt, then may he be presented to the Church, and make his confession, and be accepted as before is said. But if no man bear witness to his repentance, then ought he to be excommunicated; and, by the mouth of the minister, consent of the ministry, and commandment of the Church, such a contemner must be pronounced excommunicate from God and from the society of His Church.

After this sentence no person, his wife and family only excepted, may have any kind of conversation with him who is excommunicate; be it in eating and drinking, buying or selling, yea, in saluting or talking with him, except that it be at the commandment or with licence of the ministry, for his conversion; that he by such means confounded, seeing himself abhorred by the faithful and godly, may have occasion to repent and so be saved. The sentence of his excommunication must be published universally throughout the realm, lest any man should pretend ignorance.

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His children, begotten or born after that sentence and before his repentance, may not be admitted to baptism until either they be of age to require the same, or else the mother, or some of his especial friends, members of the Church, offer and present the child, abhorring and condemning the iniquity and obstinate contempt of the impenitent. If any think it severe that the child should be punished for the iniquity of the father, let them understand that the Sacraments appertain only to the faithful and to their seed. Such as stubbornly contemn all godly admonition and obstinately remain to their iniquity cannot be accounted amongst the faithful.

2. The Order for Public Offenders.—We have spoken nothing of those that commit horrible crimes, as murderers, man-slayers, and adulterers; for such, as we have said, the civil sword ought to punish to death. But, if they be permitted to live, the Church must, as before is said, draw the sword which of God she hath received, holding them as accursed even in their very act. The offender in each case must be called and order of the Church used against him, in the same manner as the persons that for obstinate impenitence are publicly excommunicate. The obstinate impenitent after the sentence of excommunication, and the murderer or adulterer, stand in one case as concerning the judgment of the Church; that is, neither may be received in the fellowship of the Church to prayers or sacraments (but to hearing of the Word they may be admitted) until first they offer themselves to the ministry, humbly requiring the ministers and elders to pray to God for them, and also to be intercessors to the Church that they may be admitted to public repentance, and so to the fruition of the benefits of Christ Jesus, distributed to the members of His body.

If this request be humbly made, then may not the ministers refuse to signify the same unto the Church on the next day of public preaching, the minister giving exhortation to the Church to pray to God to perform the work which He appears to have begun, working in the heart of the offender unfeigned repentance of his grievous crime, and the sense and feeling of His great mercy, by the operation of His Holy Spirit. Thereafter,400 a day ought publicly to be assigned unto him to give open confession of his offence and contempt, and so to make a public satisfaction to the Church of God. On that day the offender must appear in presence of the whole Church, and with his own mouth condemn his own impiety, publicly confessing the same; desiring God of His grace and mercy, and His congregation, that it will please them to accept him into their society, as before is said. The minister must examine diligently whether he find in the offender a hatred and displeasure of his sin, as well of his crime as of his contempt; and if he confess this, he must travail with him, to see what hope he hath of God's mercy.

If the minister find the offender reasonably instructed in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, in the virtue of His death, he may comfort him with God's infallible promises, and demand of the Church if they be content to receive in the society of their body that creature of God, whom Satan before hath drawn into his nets, seeing that he declares himself penitent. If the Church grant this, and they may not justly deny the same, then ought the minister in public prayer to commend him to God, and confess the sin of that offender and of the whole Church, desiring mercy and grace for Christ Jesus' sake. This prayer being ended, the minister ought to exhort the Church to receive that penitent brother into their favour, as they require God to receive themselves when they have offended. In sign of their consent, the elders and chief men of the Church shall take the penitent by the hand, and one or two, in name of the whole, shall kiss and embrace him with all reverence and gravity, as a member of Christ Jesus.

When these things have been done, the minister shall exhort the reconciled to take diligent heed in times coming, that Satan entrap him not into such crimes, admonishing him that he will not cease to tempt and try by all means possible to bring him from that obedience which he hath given to God, and to the ordinance of His Son Christ Jesus. The exhortation being ended, the minister ought to give public thanks unto God for the conversion of that brother, and for the401 benefits which we receive by Jesus Christ, praying for the increase and continuance of the same.

If the penitent, after he have offered himself to the ministry or to the Church, be found ignorant in the principal points of our religion, and chiefly in the article of Justification and of the office of Christ Jesus, he ought to be exactly instructed before he be received. For it is a mocking of God to receive into repentance those who know not wherein stands their remedy when they repent their sin.

3. Persons subject to Discipline.—To discipline must all estates within this realm be subject, if they offend; the rulers as well as they that are ruled; yea, and the preachers themselves, as well as the poorest within the Church. And because the eye and the mouth of the Church ought to be most single and irreprehensible, the life and conversation of the ministers ought most diligently to be tried. Of this we shall speak after we have spoken of the election of elders and deacons, who must assist the ministers in all public affairs of the Church, etc.