Confession and Absolution. outspoken, ringing words of holy absolution, which the Church has put into his mouth, which the sad sinner humbly and heartily craves, which his faithful, full confession has earned. Do not mock the dying patient by reminding him that he too is a physician. Do not cheat the broken-hearted penitent by telling him that he is a priest himself. God has provided an express comfort for him in his extremity of distress. God has given to you, and to none but you, the very anodyne for his poor soul's pain. You are cruel, you are faithless, you are untrue to your holy calling and duty, if, out of fear of man, you shrink from using it.'-Bp. Moberly, Bampton Lectures, 1868, vii. 226, 227. Form of cation. * A Form of Excommunication 'MY BRETHREN, A.D. 1706 AND ALL GOOD CHRISTIANS HERE MET TOGETHER, 'We are met upon a very unusual and mournful occasion. "We have hitherto (blessed be God) preserved, in some good measure, the ancient discipline of the Church; and notorious sinners have been prevailed upon to take shame to themselves in a public confession of their offences, and to desire the prayers of the Church for the grace that is necessary for a true conversion. 'I am sorry to tell you that there is a person now under the censures of the Church who utterly refuseth to submit to this wholesome discipline; being more concerned for the shame that attends its censures than he is for his salvation. 'We have laid before you his crimes; and the Christian methods which have been made use of to bring him to a sense of his guilt and danger, and to oblige him to make what satisfaction he can for the scandal he hath given. You will see how very long we have waited in hopes Form of of bringing him to submit to the discipline of the Church; Excommuniuntil at last our discipline begins to be slighted, as too weak for such offenders. 'However, it ought not to repent us that we have waited with patience, when we consider with what mighty patience God Himself waiteth to be gracious; and that the sentence of Excommunication was never, in the primitive Church, executed hastily, nor until all other probable ways had been made use of without effect. 'Now, this being the last remedy which the Church can make use of for awakening obstinate offenders, the whole Church ought to be satisfied upon what grounds, and by what authority, we pronounce this sentence; and what will be the effects of such a sentence, when passed according to the will and appointment of Jesus Christ. "The Holy Scriptures tell us that our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save His lost creatures, has appointed divers ordinances for the conversion and salvation. of men. For instance-He has appointed Preaching, to draw men to Him; He has appointed the Sacrament of Baptism, by which we are admitted into His household the Church; and that of the Lord's Supper, as a pledge of His love and of our communion with Him. And, lastly, He hath ordained Godly Discipline, that such who do not live as becomes their Christian profession, may be reproved, corrected, and amended, or else cast out of His Church. 'And all these ordinances are committed unto His ministers, who are also called His stewards, because to them He has committed the keys of His house and kingdom, that is, the Church; that they may admit such as are worthy, and that they may shut out such as behave. themselves disorderly in His family. 'Jesus Christ, I say, committed this power to His apostles, and they to their successors, with this assurance from His own mouth, He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me, and Him that sent Me. cation. cation. Form of 'So that you see, whoever makes a jest of Church Excommuni- discipline makes a jest of an ordinance of God; and a man may as well despise the whole Christian Religion as this power, which is as much the ordinance of Jesus Christ as preaching, or the use of the Sacraments. 'The most unlearned Christian will understand this: when he is asked, For what end he was baptized, he will answer, that he might thereby be made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven. 'But why does he believe that Baptism does give him a right to these blessings? Why, because Jesus Christ gave power to His ministers to baptize all nations; that such as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ; that is, are members of Christ's body, which is His Church. 'Now, will not our Lord Christ, who has promised to own you for His children when His ministers have admitted you into His Church by Baptism,-will He not also disown you when the same ministers, acting in His Name, shall, by the same power of the keys, shut you out of His Church? 'For if you believe that they receive you into Christ's Church by Baptism, you must believe that they shut you out as effectually by Excommunication. In short, every Christian, when he is baptized, is admitted into the Church upon a most solemn promise to live as a Christian ought to do; if he does not do so, those very ministers who admitted him are bound to exhort, to rebuke, and to censure him; and if these methods will not do, to excommunicate him, that is, to cut him off from the body of Christ, and from God's favour and mercy. Not that he may be lost for ever, but that he may see his sad condition, and repent, and be saved. The Form of Excommunication made use of by the apostles of our Lord was by delivering offenders to Satan. Now, because this is laughed at by profane people who do not know the Scriptures, I will shew you what that means: The Spirit and Word of God has told us that the devil |