(3.) The privileges from which men are excluded by excommuni- cation are not such as they have any natural or civil right unto (as hath been proved), but merely such as are granted unto the church by Jesus Christ ; and men cannot, by virtue of any agreement among themselves, without a warranty from him by his institution, expel others from the privileges which are merely of his grant and dona- tion. He alone, therefore, hath given and granted this power unto the church, namely, of excluding any, by the rules and ways of his appointment, from the privileges of his grant; which is the peculiar power of excommunication inquired after.
(4.) There is such an efficacy assigned unto excommunication, in binding the consciences of men, in retaining their sins, in the de- struction or mortification of the flesh, in the healing and recovery of sinners, as nothing but the authority of a divine institution can give unto it. By virtue of natural light and mutual consent, men may free themselves from the company and society of those who will not walk with them according to rules of communion agreed upon among them, but they cannot reach the minds and consciences of others with any of these effects.
(5.) That excommunication is an express ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ in his churches is fully declared in the Scripture; for, —
[1.] The power of it is contained in the authority given by Christ unto the church, under the name of " The keys of the kingdom of heaven;" for the power expressed therein is not merely doctrinal and declarative, as is the preaching of the gospel, — the consequent whereof, upon the faith or unbelief of them that hear it, is the remit- ting or retaining of their sins in heaven and earth, — but it is disci- plinary also, as it is appropriated unto the house, whose keys are committed unto the stewards of it. And seeing the design of Christ Avas, to have his church holy, unblamable, and without offence in the world, that therein he might make a representation of his own holiness and the holiness of his rule; and whereas those of whom it is constituted are liable and subject unto sins scandalous and offen- sive, reflecting dishonour on himself and the church, in being the occasion of sinning unto others, — that design would not have been accomplished had he not given this authority unto his church to cast out and separate from itself all that do by their sins so give offence. And the neglect of the exercise of this authority in a due manner was the principal means whereby the glory, honour, and usefulness of the churches in the world were at length utterly lost.
160 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
[2.] It hath a direct iustitution: Matt, xviii. 15-20, " If thy brother shall trespass," etc., " tell it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven," etc. After all the learned and unlearned contests that have been about this place, the sense of it is plain and obvious unto such as whose minds are not clouded with prejudices about such churches and such excommunications as are utterly foreign unto the Scripture. But that by " trespasses" in this place, sins against God, giving scandal or offence, are intended, hath been proved before; as also, that by " church" a particular Christian congregation is intended. This church hath the cognizance of the scandalous offences of its mem- bers committed unto it, when brought before it in the due order de- scribed. Hereon it makes a determination, designing in the first place the recovery of the person offending from his sin, by his hearing of its counsel and advice; but, in case of obstinacy, it is to remove him from its communion, leaving him in the outward condition of a " heathen man and a publican:" so is he to be esteemed by them that were offended with his sin ; and that because of the authority of the church binding him in heaven and earth unto the punishment due unto his sin, unless he doth repent. The rejection of an offending brother out of the society of the church, leaving him, as unto all the privileges of the church, in tlie state of a heathen, declaring him liable unto the displeasure of Christ and everlasting punishment, without repent- ance, is the excommunication we plead for; and the power of it, with its exercise, is here plainly granted by Christ and ordained in the church.
[3.] According unto this institution was the practice of the apostles, whereof we have several instances. I inight insist on the excom- munication of Simon the magician, a baptized professor, by Peter, Avho declared him to have " neither part nor lot" in the church, upon the discovery of his wickedness. Acts viii. 13, 20-23; yet because it was the single act of one apostle, and so may be esteemed extra- ordinary, I shall omit it. However, that fact of the apostle is suffi- ciently declarative of what is to be done in the church in like cases ; and which if it be not done, it cannot be preserved in its purity, ac- cording unto the mind of Christ. Bat that which was directed by the apostle Paul to be done towards the incestuous person in the church of Corinth is express, 1 Cor. v. 1-7: — ^st He declares the sin whereof the person charged was guilty, with the ignominy and scandal of it, verse 1. 2dly. He blames the church that they had not been affected with the guilt and scandal of it, so as to have proceeded to his removal or expulsion out of the church, that he might be " taken away" or cut off from them, verse 2. odli/. He declares his own