the God of Peace and Love; yet did not forbear to check, to rebuke, and to threaten that finful Nation in which he had done moft of his wonderful Works. What could be more fevere or juft than his Indignation against the Jews, for abufing and profaning the Temple of God? It is written, fays he, that my Houfe fhall be call'd Mat. 21. the House of Prayer, but ye have made it a Den of 13. Thieves. What can be more dreadful than those authentick Woes denounced against those Jewish Mat. 23. Hypocrites, who pretended to fuch Zeal for making Profelytes to the Law of Mofes, when they made the wretched Converts abundantly more the Children of Wrath than they had been before? And was not John the Baptift, the Fore-runner of the Meffias, as remarkable for the Plainness and Severity of his Reproofs, when he call'd thofe falfe-hearted Jews,who crouded after him, and pretended a mighty Fondness of his Life and Doctrine, a Generation of Vipers: And yet I don't Mat. 3. 7. remember that the Jews themselves, tho' ftung fo much by the Sharpness of his Rebukes ever call'd him Railer, for his Pains. A good Man indeed loves to be reprov'd, when he is himself free and impartial in his Thoughts, and humble under a Sense of the Infirmities of his Na

ture.

Had St. Peter, in his firft Sermon, spoken only fmooth and easy things; had he flatter'd the Great in their Sins, or the Guilty in their Tranfgreffions; could He poffibly have brought his Hearers to fuch a Senfe of their Condition as was neceffary? No. But when he told them with Apoftolical Plainnefs and Authority, that they Acts 3. had denyed the Holy One and the Fuft, and had 14, 15, defired a Murderer to be given to them, and had cru

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John Hinton.

cified the Lord of Life, and had so been themselves his Betrayers and Murtherers; when he had thus laid their Sins before them, they were foon brought to the Question, Men and Brethren, what shall we do? St. Stephen, (when he was fo reconcil'd to his cruel Perfecutors and Murderers, as that he pray'd for them, that God would not lay that Sin to their Charge; even when he was in fuch a fweet Temper of Mind) he thought it no Crime,no Trespass upon Charity, to call them by their proper Names, 'A&s 7.51, a stiff-neck'd Generation, uncircumcis'd in Heart and 52, 53, Ears, fuch as always refifted the Holy Ghoft, &c. As juft and as rough in his Reproofs was St. Paul to his Corinthians, when being puff'd up with a new-fangled Notion of a strange and unaccountable Liberty indulged to Chrifti1 Cor. 5 ans, they committed fuch Wickednesses as were 1, 2, not fo much as once nam'd among the Gentiles; and he treated thofe foolish Galatians as feverely, Before whofe Eyes Jefus Chrift had been evidently fet forth crucify'd among them, and yet were fo bewitch'd by the indefatigable Subtilty of Falfe Gal. 3. 1. Teachers, as no longer to obey the Truth. With

3:

fuch feasonable Plainnefs, St. John, reproves the Revel. 2, Churches of Ephefus, Sardis, Pergamus, Thyatira and Laodicea, that by fuch Rebukes they might bring them to a Sincere Repentance of their Sins, and to retrieve their firft Zeal and Love.

As every lawful Teacher and Governour of the Church was vefted with fuch Authority to reprove the faulty Members of it. So St. Paul gives it in Charge to his Son Timothy, not only 2 Tim. 4.to preach the Word, but to be inftant in Seafon, and out of Season, and to reprove and rebuke those who finn'd. And where he speaks concerning those Gainfayers among the Cretans, whofe Mouths were

to

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to be stop'd; and giving Titus a just Character of
that People out of one of their Prophets, he gives
Titus this particular Charge, Wherefore rebuke Tit. 1.139
them fharply, that they may be found in the Faith;

and afterwards, he bids him to rebuke with all Tit. 2.15.
Authority. And unless those who call themfelves
Chriftians were better inclin'd than they general-
ly are, Inftruction, tho' it were, by an Angel
from Heaven, without Reproof, would have very
inconfiderable Effects; and Reproof it felf is as
infignificant when it proceeds from one who has
no Authority from Chrift to that Purpose. Men
are apt to deal as roughly with fuch affuming
Reprovers, as the Man poffefs'd by a Devil did
with the Jewish Exorcifts. Reproof, efpecially Aas 19.
in Publick, when given by Inferiors looks like 15, 16.
Saucinefs, when given by Equals like Pragmati-
calnefs; but it it appears with a due Majesty and
Awfulness, when it proceeds from a Perfon ju-
ftly qualify'd and juftly commiffion'd for it. When
thofe reprove Sinners whom God fends on that
Errand, he generally gives a greater Weight to
their Words than to thofe of others. Upon their
Reproofs fome turn from their Sins as obedient
Children, and fome aggravate their eternal Mifery
by flighting them; while the Reproofs of thofe,
to whom that Office does not belong, are odious
to God, and quickly grow ridiculous to Men.

3. The truc Minifter of Jefus Chrift, or one who is a lawful Paftor in his Church, has Power to correct or cenfure fcandalous and obftinate Sinners And this Power is to take Place then, when neither Inftruction nor Reproof can make any confiderable Impreffion: This is fufficiently intimated in that Charge of our Saviour be

fore

fore-mentioned, viz. That we should bring the otherwife incorrigible Sinner before the Church; the Voice of which if he refufe to hear, he was to be treated as an Heathen or a Publican by the Church as well as by the Accufer; i. e. Care was to be taken in fuch a Cafe, that there fhould be no Communication nor Commerce held by a faithful Chriftian with fuch a Man. This was a Power inherent in the Jewish Priesthood, and continued by the concurrent Decrees and Orders of that Government, as appears by that Paffage in Ezra, who defigning a general publick Humiliation for the Sin of the reftored Captives in Ezr. 10.8. marrying ftrange Wives,made Proclamation throughout Judah and Jerufalem, that they should gather themselves together to Jerufalem: And that whofoever would not come in three Days according to the Counsel of the Princes and the Elders, all his Subftance should be forfeited, and himself Separated from the Congregation of those who had been carry'd away. The Syriac Verfion renders it, Let him be feparated from the People of Ifrael; the Arabic, Let him be Anathema, i. e. accurfed; and all his Eftate divided from the Church of the Captivity. And JoArcherleg fephus in his Jewish Antiquities, in his Account of L.11.C.5.the fame Thing, gives it to this Senfe, “ He "who fhall contemn thefe Summons, or this "Proclamation, let him be excommunicated and "his Goods confifcate to the Ufe of the Holy Treasury."

And it was not reafonable that the Chriftian Priesthood fhould have lefs Authority than that of the Jews; fince they were like to meet with Men as obftinate in Wickedness, and in Oppofition to all good Orders, as the Priests of Aaron's Family could. That they had fuch a

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Power St. Paul proves, when he denounces his
Anathema against any, tho' it fhould be an An- Gal. 1. 8.
gel from Heaven, who should dare to preach any other
Gospel than what himself had preached. And in
another Place, If any one love not the Lord Jesus Cor'16.
Chrift, let him be Anathema Maranatha, i. e. if he 22:
obftinately refuse to fubmit to the Authority
and Commands of Jefus Chrift, let him fall un-
der the heaviest and most lafting Curses, or be
accurfed till the Lord come. But more directly yet,
when St. Paul gives Directions to Titus, how he
fhould deal with Heret cks, Him who is an Here Tit. 3.10,
tick, fays he, after the first and fecond Admonition, 11.
reject; knowing that he who is fo, is fubverted and
finneth, and is condemned of himself. All fair Means
muft be us'd firft, to reduce fuch as err from the
right Way, but Severity or due Correction: If
thofe fail, these must be us'd at laft: But none can
manage this Rod of Correction rightly but the
Priefthood, or the Paftors and Governors of the
Chriftian Church.

In the Primitive Church, they had (as, according to the Jewish Rabbins, their Church had had before) three feveral Kinds or Degrees of Excommunication. And fince the Sins, which the Members of the Church might be guilty of, were of a very different Nature, and attended with very different Circumftances, fome of a more excufable, fome of a more fcandalous and deteftable Kind; it was Punishment fufficient for fome Sinners to forbid them coming to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper (an Ordinance of much more Efteem and Veneration in those Days than it is at prefent) till fuch Time as they had given to the Church fufficient Evidence of their fincere and hearty Repentance. And

fuch

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