TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
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 excommunications was never, in the primitive Church, executed hastily, nor until all other probable ways had been made use of without effect[1].
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 save his lost creatures, has appointed divers ordinances for the conversion and salvation of men.
For instance:—He has appointed Preaching[2], to draw men to him; He has appointed the Sacrament of Baptism[3], by which we are admitted into His household the Church; and that of the Lord's Supper[4], as a pledge of his love, and of our communion with Him. And lastly, He hath ordained Godly Discipline[5], 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 called his Stewards[6]; because to them He has committed the keys[7] 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[8]; 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.
