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tion, whether the office of punishment belongs to her, in order to attain to her great and holy purpose, whether she is entitled and bound to make use of ecclesiastical discipline? And to this highly important point we will now turn our attention, while we especially pay regard to the deportment of the early Christian church on this matter, and we will try to answer the four following questions:

1. What can be proved from the gospel, and the example of the primitive church as regards an ecclesiastical discipline?

2. What purpose can and should this have?

3. To what errors may it lead?

4. What is the state of the case now among us?

Holy Father, sanctify us with thy truth; thy word is truth. Amen.

I. That the Lord himself, with undoubted certainty, knew from the beginning how that in his kingdom, in as far as it stood forth externally in the world, there would always be a mixture of good and evil, even to the end of time, is clearly shewn by many of his most express declarations. But, at the same time, he always added, that he would keep for himself the office of judge, and that of sifting the genuine and false members of his kingdom, as well as the final decision of their fate. As in the well known similitude of the tares among the wheat, the servants in the first burst of zeal wished to go and violently pluck out the tares, but the master of the field stops them, by the consideration that they might easily root out the wheat with them; and that, therefore, he willed that both should grow together until the harvest, and then the separation should take place. Besides this, there is a possibility in the church of the Lord, that many tares may yet be changed into good fruit; that Christians merely in name and appearance may yet, under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, be formed into members of the invisible church. The Redeemer, therefore, willed the con

tinuation of the mixture of good and evil. On this head he explains himself in another parable, where he says, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind. Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." This His doctrine he sealed by his example, for he included Judas in the number of his disciples; and although he knew that in his heart he was not of their number, yet he kept him unto the end, and bore with him with divine patience, ever striving by his teaching and warnings to exercise a better influence over him.

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Besides this, no man is able to pronounce a certainly just judgment, and to undertake with security to make a separation between genuine and false members of the church. "Judge nothing before the time," is accordingly the warning of the apostle, " until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart." How many a sinner is veiled under the appearance of godliness, and knows how, by his hypocrisy, to deceive the eyes of men? How many a Christian humbly calls Jesus his Lord, without feeling, at the same time, in the least moved by his spirit? Yes! The Lord declares it himself, "Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many marvellous works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Thus will many be considered by men as pious, and faithful, and holy, who will appear despicable before the Searcher of hearts; and many will be converted like that publican, despised and rejected, and thrust away without love by pharisaically minded men, who by their inwardly lowly, hidden, and penitent mind have well pleased the Lord, and obtained the grace of justi

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cation. The Lord, indeed, says, "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit,"-and who will not heartily assent to this? But although it be true, that the really faithful and pious mind can never bring forth any thing but good fruit, and works pleasing unto God, yet, it is possible that, what shortsighted men consider as good fruit, may not always proceed from an internal and good root, and a pure disposition of the heart; and it is the disposition by which all human works will be valued and determined. The Lord beholds the heart, and uprightness is pleasing unto him. There is much that is evil, which does not exactly appear in rude outbreaks of internal vile lusts and desires, much that may have an outside show, which yet is not produced by the spirit of Jesus Christ, and which the omniscient and unerring judge in heaven will condemn, while men praise and extol it. Does not the Lord himself exclaim to the hypocritical Pharisees with severe carnestness, "The publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of heaven before you."

But yet we find, in the meanwhile, that the apostles, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in some cases, never hesitated regarding making a separation among the members of the newly founded church. Thus, St Peter gave over those first transgressors, Ananias and Sapphira, who " had lied to the Holy Ghost," to a fearful judgment, and the Lord confirmed his decision, by snatching away the hypocritical couple by a sudden death. Thus, also, St Paul severely reproaches the Corinthian Christians for not having expelled from their church an unworthy member who had committed incest, and commands them thus, "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one, no not to eat ;" with such an one ye shall have no communication. We cannot possibly think as

regards this conduct of the apostles, that, in so weighty a matter, they could have acted in contradiction to the will of the Lord; far rather must we believe, that if they did not in this matter follow express, but to us unknown, commands of Jesus Christ, yet they were illumined and guided by the Holy Spirit, who was to lead them into all truth, and reveal to them much which the Lord himself had not been able as yet to tell them. The primitive Christian church, then, acted according to the example of the apostles, in expelling from among them all such, as by rude outbursts of the evil that was in them, gave a proof of a heart as yet quite unregenerate, of a mind entirely without God, and without doubt they acted in this manner with perfect justice. For, as it is one of the natural rights of every society to exclude those from among them who are untrue to their principles, so also was this the incontrovertible right of every Christian community, and the church exercised it in every case that came before their notice. They could in this matter easily adopt regulations which existed in Judaism, for among them too offending members were degraded into different ranks. Such conduct, besides, appeared necessary, and that not only with regard to the church itself, but the neglect of it would have been unjustifiable as regarded the brethren. For the church had plainly these important duties, to keep herself as pure as possible within, to secure herself against the contagion of heathen corruption of morals, and to repress the idea that it was possible to be a Christian and yet to live in heathen service of sin. The church, therefore, from the beginning, cast out from their communion all those who had violated, by gross sins, the vow so solemnly made at their baptism, of renouncing the devil and all his works, and living a new life dedicated to God; and whose whole nature showed that they had either remained completely untouched by the spirit of Jesus Christ, or that they had again sunk back into the old service of sin. The church, on the other hand, wished to keep alive in all her members a consciousness that the Lord desired to gather together a glorious

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church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish." They wished to make the excommunicated person feel, that, by reason of his sinful course of life, he could on no account become a partaker of the rights and goods which the Lord has promised only to his faithful and true disciples. She wished, too, and was obliged, by the severe discipline which she used, to convince the heathen how little they were justified in charging Christianity itself with the sins of a few individuals, who falsely entitled themselves Christians. Thus was Tertullian enabled to say to the heathen," Those who are no Christians are unjustly called such. Such men take no part in our congregations; they do not receive the communion with us, they are by their sins again become yours; for we do not again have intercourse even with those whom your cruelty has forced to deny their faith; and yet we would far more readily endure those among us who have fallen from the principles of our religion by compulsion, than those who have done so of their own free will. Moreover, you call those men Christians without reason, who are not acknowledged by us as Christians."

From all, then, that we have said, my brethren, it follows that, so far from the gospel being opposed to the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, it rather justifies and enjoins it. The apostle Paul declares the Christian churches not only to be justified, but also bound to eject out of their communion all who, by gross sius, had publicly shown themselves unworthy of the name of Christian brethren. Among such gross sins were reckoned not only those enumerated by the apostle Paul, such as theft, lasciviousness, adultery, drunkenness, and the like, but also, especially in times of persecution, denial of the Lord before the judgement-seats of the heathen, for thereby they expelled themselves from the church of Jesus Christ. The Christians were allowed to eat with all heathens, and to engage with them in intercourse of any kind, but with these fallen brethren they were bound to break off all society, and all brotherly communion was done away between them. "Them

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