it is said that they have from Christ the power of CHAP. the Keys2. 1 Thence Christ's Ministers are called Tauía, oikovóμoi. See 1 Cor. iv. 1. 2 Cor. vi. 4. Col. i. 25. Titus i. 7. 1 Pet. iv. 10. 2 HOOKER, VI. IV. 1. They that have the keys of the kingdom of heaven are hereby signified to be stewards of the house of God, under whom they guide, command, and judge His family. The souls of men are God's treasure, committed to the trust and fidelity of such as must render a strict account for the very least which is under their custody. See also BARROW de Potestate Clavium, iv. p. 50, ed. 1687. This Latin Treatise is fuller and more complete than the English one of the same Author, entitled, On the Power of the Keys. Q. You speak of admitting to the Kingdom of Heaven; when so speaking, what do you mean by the Kingdom of Heaven? A. I mean, first, the Visible Church, or the Kingdom of Grace; and, secondly, that to which it leads the faithful Christian',—namely, the Invisible Church, or the Kingdom of Glory. 1 See above, chaps. ii. and iii. Q. How do Christ's Ministers admit persons into the kingdom of heaven in the former sense? A. By the Ministry of the Word of God, that is, by Preaching; and by Holy Baptism. Q. How do they exclude from the kingdom of heaven? XIII. 3-5. A. By Church censures after solemn investi- 1 Cor. v. gation, trial, and admonition, and specially by the judicial sentence of excommunication. Q. What are the intents and ends of Church censures ? 2 Tim.ii.17. 1 Tim. i. 20. A. With respect to Christ, the ends and aims Lev. x. .0. of Church censures are, to maintain His honour; Ezek. xxii. with respect to the Church, to preserve her holi- 26. xliv. 23. Deut. xxvii. ness, purity, and unity; with respect to offenders, 13. to warn them by a pre-announcement of the final Joel ii. 12. 2 Chron. xxiv. 20. 1 Cor. v. 4-7. PART I. Judgment', to inspire them with godly sorrow, to the intent that "they may learn not to blaspheme," and "that their spirits may be saved in the day of the Lord;" and with respect to all others, to deter them from similar offences. For, Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat', and, Minatur innocentibus, qui parcit nocentibus3. 2 Cor. vii. 9-12. 1 Tim. i. 20. 2 Cor. ii. 4. vii. 9. 1 TERTULLIAN, Apol. 38. Summum futuri judicii præ judicium est, si quis ita deliquerit, ut a communicatione orationis et conventûs et omnis sancti commercii relegetur. S. CYPRIAN de Habitu Virginum, p. 92. This treatise commences with a recital of the benefits of Church Discipline. COMMINATION Office of the Church of England. 2 5 COKE, 109. Q. What, further, is the true character of Church censures? A. They are acts of charity to the offender and to others; and the omission of them, when they ought to be exercised, is an act of injury and cruelty. Knowing God's wrath against sin, the 2 Cor. v 11. Church must censure it. Terreo, quia timeo2, is Heb. x 31. her motto, and Si perdo, pereo. 1 WISDOM vi. 17. The very true beginning of Wisdom is the desire of Discipline, and the care of Discipline is Love, and Love is the keeping of her laws. ECCLUS. xxiii. 1-3. O Lord,... who will set scourges over my thoughts, and the Discipline of wisdom over mine heart? that they spare me not for mine ignorances, and it pass not by my sins; lest mine ignorance increase, and my sins abound to my destruction, and I fall before mine adversaries, and mine enemy rejoice over me, whose hope is far from Thy mercy. EPISTOLA Cleri Rom. ap. S. Cyprian. ep. 31. Ubi poterit medicina indulgentiæ proficere si etiam ipse medicus, interceptâ pœnitentiâ, indulget periculis ? si tantummodo operit vulnus! Hoc est non curare, sed occidere. S. CHRYSOSTOм, ii. 112, ed. Savil. d undeμíav avtoîs τιμωρίαν τιθεὶς, μονονουχὶ ὁπλίζει τῇ ἀδείᾳ. S. AUG. Serm. xiii. Disciplinam qui abjicit, infelix est; qui negat, crudelis est. 2 S. AUG. in Ps. lxiii. iv. 895, et ad Litt. Petilian. iii. 4. Ecclesiastica Disciplina, medicinalis vindicta, terribilis lenitas, charitatis severitas. Q. Is it, then, to be considered a matter of choice with the Ministers of Christ whether they will exercise such discipline or no? CHAP. Mark vi. A. No. Christ never said or did any thing in vain. When He said, "If he will not hear Matt. xviii. the Church," He ordered the Church to speak; 17. and when He gave the Apostles power for the 7-13. government of His Church, He commanded them Luke ix. to exercise it; and, accordingly, St. Titus and St. 1-6. Timothy are commanded by St. Paul to rebuke 1 Tim. v. 20. with all authority; and the Bishops' of Perga- 2 Tim. iv. 2. mus and Thyatira are severely reproved by St. Titus ii. 15. John for suffering false doctrines and corrupt Rev. ii. 14, practices in their Churches. Non regit, says S. 15. 20. Augustin, qui non corrigit3. 1 S. CHRYSOSTOM, ii. p. 160, ed. Savil. Kal & Xplords ἐπέστησε (τοὺς ἀποστόλους) ἐπιτιμῶντας, καὶ οὐ μόνον ἐπιτιμῶντας ἀλλὰ καὶ κολάζοντας, τὸν γὰρ οὐδενὸς τούτων ἀκούσαντα ἐκέλευσεν ὡς ἐθνικὸν εἶναι καὶ τελώνην πῶς δὲ αὐτοῖς τὰς κλεῖς ἔδωκεν; εἰ γὰρ μὴ μέλλουσι κρίνειν, ἁπάντων ἔσονται ἄκυροι, καὶ μάτην τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ δεσμεῖν καὶ τοῦ λύειν εἰλήφασι, καὶ ἄλλως δὲ, εἰ τοῦτο κρατήσειεν, ἅπαντα οἰχήσεται καὶ τὰ ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις, καὶ τὰ ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι, καὶ τὰ ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις—καὶ ἄνω καὶ κάτω πάντα γενήσεται. 2 S. HIERON. in Mich. c. v. Legamus Apocalypsin Joannis Apostoli, in quâ laudantur accusanturque Angeli Ecclesiarum pro virtutibus vitiisque eorum quibus præesse dicuntur. It is observable, that in the original Greek of the Revelation of St. John (ii. 9, 10. iii. 2. 15-18), the epithets assigned to the several Churches agree in gender with the word Angel, and not with the word Church, so that the Holy Spirit seems emphatically to identify each Church with its respective Bishop, and to lay on him the responsibility of its failings and corruptions. 3 S. AUG. in Ps. xliv. iv. p. 552. Tractat. in Joann. xlvi. Qui sua quærit, non quæ Jesu Christi, peccantem non liberè audet arguere. Ecce nescio quis peccavit; graviter peccavit; increpandus est, excommunicandus est. Sed excommunicatus, inimicus erit. Jam ille qui sua quærit, non xxiv. 47. PART I. quæ Jesu Christi, ne inimicitiarum humanarum incurrat molestiam, tacet, non corripit. Ecce lupus ovi guttur apprehendit; tu taces, non increpas! O mercenarie, lupum venientem vidisti, et fugisti! Fugisti, quia tacuisti ; tacuisti, quia timuisti. Fuga animi timor est. On the measure and rule of Church Discipline, see S. AUG. de Fide, vi. p. 291, &c. Archbp. CRANMER'S Catechism, ed. Oxon. 1829, p. 201. And this also is to be reproved, that some men, whiche continue in manyfest and open synne, and go not about to amend their lyfes, yet they wil be counted Christen men, and interpoyse to receaue the same sacramentes that other do, to come to the Churche, to worship God, and to pray with other. Suche muste be warned of their fautes, and yf they refuse to heare and amende, then they ought to be excommunicate and put out of the Christen congregation, vntil they repente and amende their lyfes; lest by suche manifest sinne and euil examples, other men might be provoked to do the lyke, and so at length many might be infected, and the Christen relygyon despised and euil spoken of, as though it were the worst relygyon, forasmuche as Christian men shoulde then leade a shameful and ungodly lyfe. CHAPTER XIV. PRIVILEGES IN THE CHURCH. Absolution. Q. You spoke of re-admission to the Visible Church, or Kingdom of Grace; and, secondly, by its means, to the Invisible Church, or Kingdom of Glory; how do the Ministers of Christ readmit offenders into the Church or Kingdom of Heaven, both Visible and Invisible? A. By disposing them to repentance through application of the salutary medicine of the promises to penitence, and threats against sin, revealed in the Word of God, and thus producing compunction and contrition in them; then by declaring, as God's heralds, His readiness to pardon all who truly repent and believe in Him; CHAP. XIV. then, by pronouncing their pardon and restoring them, on their repentance and faith, and confession of sins, through the ministry of reconciliation, which has been appointed and entrusted 2 Cor. v. 19. to them as Ministers in the Church of God'. 1 S. AUG. Serm. ccxiv. Ecclesia Dei vivi claves accepit regni cœlorum, ut in illâ per sanguinem Christi, operante Spiritu Sancto, fiat remissio peccatorum. In hâc Ecclesia reviviscit anima quæ mortua fuerat peccatis, ut convivificetur Christo, cujus gratiâ sumus salvi facti. F. MASON de Ministerio, v. 10. Minister Evangelicus dupliciter peccata remittit, dispositivè et declarativě: dispositivè, quia homines ad remissionem peccatorum consequendam disponit perducendo ad fidem et pœnitentiam ;` declarativè, quia jam pœnitentibus et credentibus peccatorum remissionem tanquam divinus præco declarat. Ita teneras conscientias cum peccatorum mole et desperatione luctantes per promissiones evangelicas spe veniæ erigimus, jamque pœnitentibus et credentibus remissa peccata pronunciamus. See also BARROW de Potestate Clavium, p. 58. Q. By what other figure beside that of opening and shutting by the Keys does Christ describe the exercise of Church authority? Gal. vi. 1. Whose Matt. xviii. A. By that of binding and loosing. soever sins ye remit," says He to His Apostles, "they are remitted; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Q. Have men then the power of absolving their fellow-men from sin committed against God? 18. viii. 47. A. No, they have not: for "who can for- Mark ii. 7. give sins but God alone1?" They do not give Luke v. 21. pardon to the sinner, any more than the Phy- Rev. iii. 7. sician gives health to the sick, or the Judge gives release to the accused: but they apply the means appointed and given by God for its attainment; and God blesses the means, and He works by them. 1 S. CYPRIAN de Lapsis, p. 129. Nemo se fallat, nemo se decipiat. Solus Dominus misereri potest. Veniam peccatis, quæ in ipsum commissa sunt, solus potest Ille largiri, |