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A42763 CXI propositions concerning the ministerie and government of the Church Gillespie, George, 1613-1648. 1647 (1647) Wing G752; ESTC R21587 30,033 52

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and will of Christ revealed in his Word but as it liketh them and according to their own will and prescript what other thing goe they about to doe then by horrible sacriledge to throw down Christ from his own Throne 5. For our onely Law-giver and Interpreter of his Fathers will Jesus Christ hath prescribed and foreappointed the rule according to which hee would have his Worship and the Government of his owne House to bee ordered To wrest this rule of Christ laid open in his holy Word to the Counsells Wills Manners Devices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Men is most high impiety But contrarily the Law of Faith commandeth the counsell and purposes of men to bee framed and conformed to this rule and overtuneth all the reasonings of worldly wisdome and bringeth into captivity the thoughts of the proud swelling minde to the obedience of Christ Neither ought the voice of any to take place or bee rested upon in the Church but the voice of Christ alone 6. The same Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church hath ordained in the New Testament not only the Preaching of the Word and Administration of Baptisme and the Lords Supper but also Ecclesiasticall Government distinct and differing from the Civill Government and it is his will that there bee such a Government distinct from the Civill in all his Churches every where as well those which live under Christian as those under infidell Magistrates even untill the end of the World Heb. 13. 7 17. 1 Tim. 5. 17 19. Rom. 12. 8. 1 Cor. 12. 28. 1 Thes. 5. 12. Acts 1. 20 28. Luke 12. 42. 1 Tim. 6. 14. Apoc. 2. 25. 7. This Ecclesiasticall Government distinct from the Civill is from God committed not to the whole body of the Church or Congregation of the faithfull or to bee Exercised both by Officers and People but to the Ministers of Gods Word together with the Elders which are joyned with them for the care and Government of the Church 1 Tim. 5. 17. To these therefore who are over the Church in the Lord belongeth the Authority and Power and it lyeth upon them by their office according to the rule of Gods Word to discerne and judge betwixt the Holy and Prophane to give diligence for amendment of Delinquents and to purge the Church as much as is in them from scandalls and that not only by enquiring inspection warning reproving and more sharply expostulating but also by acting in the further and more severe parts of Ecclesiasticall Discipline or exercising Ecclesiastick jurisdiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest and weightiest censures where need is 8. None that is within the Church ought to bee without the reach of Church-law and exempt from Ecclesiastick Censures but Discipline is to be exercised on all the Members of the Church without respect or consideration of those adhering qualities which use to commend a man to other men Such as Power Nobility illustrious Descent and the like for the judgement cannot bee right where men are led and moved with these considerations Wherefore let respect of Persons be farre from all Judges chiefly the Ecclesiasticall And if any in the Church doe so swell in pride that he refuse to be under this Discipline and would have himself to be free and exempt from all tryall and Ecclesiastick judgement this mans disposition is more like the haughtinesse of the Romane Pope then the meeknesse and submissivenesse of Christs Sheep 9. Ecclesiasticall censure moreover is either proper to bee inflicted upon the Ministers and Office-bearers onely or with them common to other Members of the Church The former consisteth in suspension or deposition of Ministers from their Office which in the ancient Canons is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The latter consisteth in the greater and lesser Excommunication as they speak Whatsoever in another Brother deserveth Excommunication The same much more in a Mininister deserveth Excommunication But justly sometimes a Minister is to bee put from his Office and deprived of that Power which by Ordination was given him against whom neverthelesse to draw the sword of Excommunication no reason doth compell 10. Sometime also it happeneth that a Minister having fallen into Heresie or Apostasie or other grievous crimes if hee shew tokens of true repentance may bee justly received into the communion of the Church Whom notwithstanding it is no way expedient to restore into his former place or charge yea perhaps it will not bee found fit to restore such a one to the Ministery in another Congregation as soone as hee is received into the bosome of the Church Which surely is most agreeable as well as to the Word of God 2 King 23. 9. Ezech. 44. 10 11 12 13 14. as to that Ecclesiasticall Discipline which in some ages after the times of the Apostles was in use So true is it that the Ministers of the Church are lyable as well to peculiar as to common censures Or that a Minister of the Church is censured one way and one of the people another way 11. Ecclesiasticall censure which is not proper to Ministers but common to them with other Members of the Church is either suspension from the Lords Supper which by others is called the Publicanes Excommunication or the cutting off of a Member which is commonly called Excommunication The distinction of this twofold censure commonly though not so properly passing under the name of the lesser and greater Excommunication is not onely much approved by the Church of Scotland and the Synode now assembled at Westminster but also by the Reformed Churches of France the Low-countreys and of Pole-land as is to be seen in the book of the Ecclesiastick Discipline of the Reformed Churches in France Chap. 5. Art 9. In the harmonie of the Belgicks Synodes Chap. 14. Art 8. 9. In the Canons of the generall Synode of Torne held in the yeare 1597. 12. That the distinction of that twofold Church censure was allowed also by antiquity it may be sufficiently clear to him who will consult the sixtie one Canon of the sixth generall Synode with the Annotations of Zonaras and Balsamon Also the thirteenth Canon of the eighth Synode which is termed the first and second with the Notes of Zonaras Yea besides even the penitennts also themselves of the fourth degree or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is which were in the consistency were suspended from the Lords Supper though as to other things of the same condition with the faithfull For to the communion also of Prayers and so to all priviledges of Ecclesiasticall society the Eucharist alone excepted they were thought to have right So sacred a thing was the Eucharist esteemed See also beside others Cyprian 1. Book Epist. 11. That Dyanisius the Author of the Ecclesiastick Hierarchie Chap. 3. Part. 3. Basil. Epist. to Amphilochius Can. 4 Ambros. lib. 2. De officiis Chap. 27. Augustine in his book against the Donatists after the conference Cap. 4. Chrysostom Homil. 83. in Matth.
most religiously avoided Lament 4. 13 14 15. The same thing is witnessed by Ananias the high Priest in Josephus of the Jewish Warre 4. Book Chap. 5. where hee saith that those false Zelots of that time bloody men ought to have been restrained from accesse to the Temple by reason of the pollution of murther Yea as Philo the Jew witnesseth in his book of the Offerers of Sacrifices Whosoever were found unworthy and wicked were by edict forbidden to approach the holy thresholds 22. Neither must that be part by which was noted by Zonaras Book 4. of his Annals whereof see also Scaliger agreeing with him in Elench Triheres Nicserrar Cap. 28 namely that the Essenes were forbidden the holy Place as being hainous and p●acular transgressers and such as held other opinions and did otherwise teach concerning Sacrifices then according to the Law and observed not the ordinances of Moses whence it proceeded that they Sacrificed privately Yea and also the Essenes themselves did thrust away from their Congregations those that were wicked Whereof see Drusius of the three sects of Jews Lib. 4. cap. 22. 23. God verily would not have his Temple to bee made open to unworthy and uncleane worshippers nor was it free for such men to enter into the Temple See Nazianzen Orat. 21. The same thing is witnessed and declared by divers late writers such as have beene and are more acquainted with the Jewish antiquities Consult the Annotations of Vetablus and of Ainsworth an English writer upon Psal. 118. 19 20. also Constantius L'empereur Annotat in Cod. Middoth Cap. 2. Pag. 44 45. Cornelius Bertramus of the common-wealth of the Hebrews Cap. 7. Henrie Vorstius Animadvers. in Pi●k Rab. Eliezer Pag. 169. The same may bee proved out of Ezech. 23. 38 39. Jer. 7. 9 10 11 12. whence also it was that the solemne and publike Society in the Temple had the name of the Assembly of the Righteous and Congregation of Saints Psal. 89. 5 7. Psal. 111. 1. Psal. 147. 1. Hence also is that Psal. 118. 19 20. of the gates of righteousnesse by which the righteous enter 24. That which is now driven at is not that all wicked and unclean persons should be utterly excluded from our Ecclesiasticall Societies and so from all hearing of Gods Word Yea there is nothing lesse intended For the Word of God is the instrument as well of conversion as of confirmation and therefore is to bee Preached as well to the not converted as to the converted as well to the repenting as the unrepenting The Temple indeed of Jerusalem had speciall promises as it were pointing out with the finger a Communion with God through Christ 1 King 8. 30 48. Dan. 6. 10. 2 Chron. 6. 16. and 7. 15 16. But t is far otherwise with our Temples or places of Church Assemblies because our Temples containe nothing Sacramentall in them such as the Tabernacle and Temple contained as the most learned Professors of Leyden said rightly in Synops. Pur. Thelogie Disput. 48. Thes. 47. 25. Wherefore the point to be here considered as that which is now aimed at is this that howsoever even under the New Testament the uncleannesse of those to whom the Word of God is Preached bee tolerated yet all such of what estate or condition soever in the Church as are defiled with manifest and grievous scandals and doe thereby witnesse themselves to be without the inward and spirituall Communion with Christ and the faithfull may and are to bee altogether discharged from the Communion of the Lords Supper untill they repent and change their manners 26. Besides even those to whom it was not permitted to go into the holy Courts of Israel and to ingyre themselves into Ecclesiasticall Communion and who did stand betweene the court of Israel and the utter wall were not therefore to be kept back from hearing the Word for in Solomons Porch and so in the intermurale or court of the Gentiles the Gospel was Preached both by Christ John 10 23. and also by the Apostles Acts 3. 11. and 5. 12. and that of purpose because of the reason brought by Pineda of the things of Salomon book 5. Chap. 19. because a more frequent multitude was there and somewhat larger opportunity of sowing the Gospel Wherefore to any whomsoever even heathen people meeting there the Lord would have the Word to be Preached who notwithstanding purging the Temple did not onely overthrow the tables of Money changers and chaires of those that sold Doves but also cast forth the buyers and sellers them●elves Matth. 21. 12. for hee could not endure either such things or such persons in the Temple 27. Although then the Gospel is to be Preached to every creature the Lord in expresse words commanding the same Mark 16. 15. yet not to every one is set open an accesse to the holy Supper T is granted that Hypocrites do lurk in the Church who hardly can be convicted and discovered much lesse repelled from the Lord Supper Such therefore are to be suffered till by the fanne of judgement the graine bee separate from the chaffe But those whose wicked deeds or words are knowne and made manifest are altogether to bee debarred from partaking those symboles of the Covenant of the Gospel lest that the Name of God bee greatly disgraced whilest sins are permitted to spread abroad in the Church unpunished or lest the Stewards of Christ by imparting the signes of the Grace of God to such as are continuing in the state of impurity and scandall bee partakers of their sinnes Hitherto of suspension 28. Excommunication ought not to be proceeded unto except when extreme necessity constraineth But whensoever the soul of the sinner cannot otherwise bee healed and that the safety of the Church requireth the cutting off of this or that Member it behoveth to use this last remedy In the Church of Rome indeed Excommunication hath beene turned into greatest injustice and tyrannie as the Pharisees abused the casting out of the Synagogues which was their Excommunication to the fulfilling of the lust of their own mindes Yet the ordinance of Christ is not therefore by any of the Reformed Religion to be utterly thrust away and wholly rejected What Protestant knows not that the vassals of Antichrist have drawn the Lords Supper into the worst and most pernicious abuses as also the Ordination of Ministers and other ordinances of the Gospel Yet who will say that things necessary whether the necessity be that of command or that of the means or end are to be taken away because of the abuse 29. They therefore who with an high hand do persevere in their wickednesse after foregoing admonitions stubbornly despised or carelessely neglected are justly by Excommunication in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ cut off and cast out from the society of the faithfull and are pronounced to bee cast out from the Church untill beeing filled with shame and cast downe they shall returne againe to a more sound minde and by