[3.] It is also required that the previous process, in and by private and public admonition, and that repeated, with patient waiting for the success of each of them, be duly premised. Whether this extend itself unto all causes of excommunication shall be afterward inquired into. Ordinarily it is so necessary unto the conviction of the mind and conscience of the offender, and to leave him without either pro- vocation from the church or excuse in himself, so suited to be ex- pressive of the grace and patience of Christ toward sinners, so requi- site unto the satisfection of the church itself in their procedure, as that the omission of it will probably render the sentence useless and
OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 169
ineffectual. A crying out, " I admonish a first, a second, a third time," and so, to excommunication, is a very absurd observation of a divine institution.
[4] It is required that the case of the person to be censured, as unto his profession of repentance on the one hand, or obstinacy on the other, be judged and determined by the whole church in love and compassion. There are few who are so profligately wicked but that, when the sin wherewith they are charged is evidently such in the light of nature and Scripture, and when it is justly proved against them, they will make some profession of sorrow and repent- ance. Whether this be sufficient, as in most cases it is, to suspend the present proceeding of the church, or quite to lay it aside, is left unto the judgment of the church itself, upon consideration of present circumstances and what is necessary unto its own edification. Only, this rule must be continually observed, that the least appearance of haste or undue precipitation herein is to be avoided in all these cases, as the bane of church rule and order.
Again ; the manner of its administration according to the mind of Christ maybe considered. And hereunto are required, — 1. Prayer ^ without which it can no way be administered in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The administration of any solemn ordinance of the gospel without pra}' er is a horrible profanation of it ; and the neglect or contempt hereof, in any who take upon them to excom- municate others, is an open proclamation of the nullity of their act and sentence. And the observation of the administration of it without any due reverence of God, without solemn invocation of the name of Christ, thereby engaging his presence and authority in what they do, is that principally which hath set the consciences of all mankind at liberty from any concernment in this ecclesiastical cen- sure, and whence those that administer it expect no other success of what they do but what they can give it by outward force : and where this fails, excommunication is quickly laid aside ; as it was when the pope threatened the cantons of the Swiss, that if they com- plied not with some of his impositions, he would excommunicate them ; whereon they sent him word " They would n.ot be excom- municated ; " which ended the matter. Wherefore, when our Lord Jesus Christ gives unto his church the power of binding and loosing, directing them in the exercise of that power, he directs them to ask assistance by prayer when they are gathered together. Matt, xviii. 18-20: and the apostle directs the church of Corinth that they should proceed unto this sentence when they were gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. v. 4; which could not be without calling on his name. In brief, without prayei", neither is the ordinance itself sanctified unto the church, nor are any meet to administer it, nor is the authority of Christ either owned or engaged,
170 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
nor divine assistance obtained, neither is what is done any more ex- communication than any rash curse is; so that many [such] proceed inordinately out of the mouths of men.
And tlie prayer required herein is of three sorts: — (1.) Tliat which is previous, for guidance and direction in a matter of so great weight and importance. It is no small thing to fall into mistakes when men act in the name of Christ, and so engage his authority in what he will not own ; and the best of men, the best of churches, are liable unto such mistakes, when they are not under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which is to be obtained by prayer only. (2.) In or together with the administration of it, that what is done on earth may be ratified in heaven, by the approbation of Christ, and be made effectual unto its proper end. (3.) It must be followed with the prayer of the church unto the same purpose ; all with respect unto the humiliation, repentance, healing, and recovery, of the offender.
2. It is to be accompanied with lamentation or mourning. So the apostle, reproving the church of Corinth for the omission of it when it was necessary, tells them that they had not " mourned," that the offender might be taken away from among them, 1 Cor. V. 2. It is not to be done without mourning. And himself calls the execution of this sentence, from this adjunct, his bewailing of them: " I shall bewail many that have sinned already," 2 Cor. xii. 21 Compassion for the person offending, with respect unto that danger- ous condition whereinto he hath cast himself, the excision of a member of the same body, with whom they have had communion in the most holy mysteries of divine worship and sat down at the table of the Lord, with a due sense of the dishonour of the gospel by his fall, ought to ingenerate this mourning or lamentation in the minds of them who are concerned in the execution of the sentence ; nor is it advisable for any church to proceed thereunto before they are so affected.