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CHAP. XII. Concerning what ought to be done by private persons, when Church-officers spare such as are scandalous.
We come now to the last question proposed: namely, supposing that Church-officers should be defective in trying and censuring scandalous persons, what is the duty of private Christians in such a case? And whether, notwithstanding this, they ought to continue in the communion of such a Church, or to separate from her?
This question has troubled the Church and been the occasion of many evils in many ages. The devil thereby, under the pretense of indignation at offenses, has caused them to abound in the Church, as Church histories and the writings of the Fathers concerning the Novatians, Donatists, and such like fully demonstrate. And although we have great ground to acknowledge God’s mercy in the sobriety of His people among us, so that we have unity with purity, yet, seeing that this topic follows in order, we shall answer briefly by laying down these grounds.
First, it cannot be denied that such a case may occur, and often actually does occur, in which Church-officers are defective in exercising discipline upon scandalous persons. This may arise from negligence, unfaithfulness, faintheartedness, or from some other sinful infirmity at best, as may be gathered from the second and third chapters of Revelation.
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The tremendous, firsthand account of New England Puritan John Eliot’s mission to the Massachusett and Wampanoag Indians during the 17th century. Listen and be blessed. Then, pray and go!
Or, read the original print below. Visit also WPE Audio for more audio resources.
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CHAP. VI. Concerning what is to be accounted satisfaction, or satisfying.
The great question is, when a person appears, acknowledges his offense, and submits to a public rebuke, what is to be judged satisfactory, so that a Church judicatory may stop the process, rest satisfied, and admit the person to Church privileges as though the former offense had not been?
In answering this, we shall first show what is not satisfactory. Secondly, we shall show what a Church judicatory need not inquire into for this ecclesiastical satisfaction. Thirdly, we shall show what is necessary and satisfactory. Then we shall answer one or two questions for further clarification.
1. We say that every verbal acknowledgment of a fault, even though accompanied by a promise of amendment, is not sufficient. Such a profession may occur in either of the two cases formerly mentioned: first, where the person merely mocks Christ’s ordinance by making the profession; or secondly, where he has often relapsed after making similar professions, or at present continues in that same offense or some other gross evil. To regard such a profession of repentance as satisfactory would produce all the inconveniences already mentioned and would amount to a manifest taking of the name of the Lord in vain.
This may be gathered from the following consideration. Such a profession, under these circumstances, ought not to satisfy a brother in the exercise of private admonition. On the contrary, he ought all the more to take one or two others with him afterward, being the more offended by such hypocrisy. If those witnesses also meet with the same insincere profession, they may properly bring the matter before the Church, since they likewise cannot reasonably be satisfied with such mockery. Much less, then, ought the Church itself to be satisfied with it, because the Church more formally represents Jesus Christ and His authority. Consequently, mockery and contempt shown toward the Church constitute a far greater offense.
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CHAPTER VIII. Showing What Is Especially Required of Christians When Offenses Abound
It is useful to inquire what is especially required of Christians living in times when offenses greatly abound, and when there is an unusual readiness both to give offense and to take it. It would be impossible to descend into every particular case. Nevertheless, because the subject is highly profitable, and because Scripture speaks so fully concerning it—especially in Romans 14 and throughout both Epistles to the Corinthians—we may propose several general directions.
First, a Christian ought not merely to satisfy his own conscience concerning the lawfulness of what he does, but should also have sincere regard for the satisfaction of the consciences of others, as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 10:29. The neglect of this duty opens the door to countless evils. If men were truly grieved whenever others stumbled through anything they had done, as Paul himself was, there would be far fewer offenses. It ought to pierce our hearts whenever we hear that any brother has been made weak or grieved through our conduct. This inward sympathy is one of the principal remedies against giving offense. Where such tenderness exists, wisdom will not be lacking. Paul’s own spirit ought to be ours: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?” Were such compassion deeply rooted within us, we would sooner expose ourselves to personal suffering than knowingly become the occasion of another person’s spiritual hurt.
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The following chapter comes from Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students. I remember reading this chapter after a season of pastoral burnout and finding it such a tonic to my weary soul. It certainly also speaks to the sensitivity that such great men had for the real struggles of emotional and mental health from a very intimate, first-person perspective!
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As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord. Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. There maybe here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows, and makes them to know, that they are but dust. Knowing by most painful experience what deep depression of spirit means, being visited therewith at seasons by no means few or far between, I thought it might be consolatory to some of my brethren if I gave my thoughts thereon, that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them when they became for a season possessed by melancholy; and that sadder men might know that one upon whom the sun has shone right joyously did not always walk in the light.
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Just finished Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. A really thought-provoking, short non-fiction book that explores how bankrupt modern society is in meeting our deeper needs for identity, social belonging, and human purpose. Writing from firsthand experience in warfare, he reflects on the paradox of how men actually find hidden blessings in their battlefield “bands of brothers,” only to find the highly fragmented, individualistic society to which they return has nothing to offer them but a complete void. No wonder traumatic events like war and other tragedies, which band people together in a common purpose, actually reduce the incidence of mental health problems or at least mitigate them.
A little more from Wikipedia:
In Tribe, Junger discusses how the human experience is profoundly different in modern society compared to in the small groups (or tribes) in which people have historically lived. While people in tribes were interconnected and dependent on each other, people in modern society, he argues, often feel detached from their neighbors and experience deep fissures along sociodemographic lines. The modern man may go his whole life without needing to put himself at risk to help other people, given the availability of the police, fire department, and other emergency services; despite being surrounded by people, the modern person may also feel incredibly alone and isolated. These observations give rise a central question of Junger’s book: why do veterans often express that they were happier in times of war than at home?
As a caveat, bear in mind that the author is not a Christian and presupposes the theory of evolution in appraising social phenomena.
Also reading the modern classic Fair Sunshine with the family on the Lord’s day. Jock Purves gives compelling accounts of various Presbyterian heroes and heroines from the late 17th century persecutions in Scotland under the cruel tyranny of the Stuarts. Definitely for high school readers and up, both in terms of language level and mature content. The tortures, while not gratuitously explained, are conveyed enough to disturb any reader. But such wounds are sweet, as the are the bearing in the “body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”
One of the most moving things in these accounts are the farewell speeches of these noble martyrs on the gallows. A sample here from Hugh McKail in 1666, when he was only 26 years old:
Now I begin my intercourse with God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations; farewell, the world and all of its delights; farewell, meat and drinks; farewell, sun, moon and stars.
Welcome, God and Father; welcome, Sweet Lord Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant; welcome, Blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all consolation; welcome, glory; welcome, eternal life; welcome, death. O Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit; for thou hast redeemed my soul, O Lord God of truth!
Truly, these are such “of whom the world was not worthy.”
I might just add that we have found Douglas Bond’s books written for children about the Covenanters really good. Start reading Duncan’s War with your family, and you’ll likely read the rest!
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The following taken from Book 2, Chapter 4 of Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, pp. 184-194.
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CHAP. IV. Of the agreements and differences between the nature of the Civil and of the Ecclesiastical Powers or Governments.
Having now observed what our opposites yield to us, or we to them, I shall for further unfolding of what I plead for, or against, add here the chief agreements and differences between the Civil and Ecclesiastical powers, so far as I apprehend them. They both agree in these things: 1. They are both from God; both the Magistrate, and the Minister is authorized from God, both are the Ministers of God, and shall give account of their administrations to God. 2. Both are tied to observe the Law and Commandments of God: and both have certain directions from the Word of God to guide them in their administration. 3. Both Civil Magistrates and Church Officers are Fathers, and ought to be honoured and obeyed according to the fifth Commandment: Utrumque scilicet dominium, saith Luther, Tom. 1. fol. 139. both Governments, the Civil and the Ecclesiastical, do pertain to that Commandment. 4. Both Magistracy and Ministry are appointed for the glory of God as Supreme, and for the good of men as the subordinate end. 5. They are both of them mutually aiding and auxiliary, each to other. Magistracy strengthens the Ministry, and the Ministry strengthens Magistracy. 6. They agree in their general kind; they are both Powers and Governments. 7. Both of them require singular qualifications, eminent gifts and endowments, and of both it holds true, Quis ad haec idoneus? Both of them have degrees of censures and correction according to the degrees of offences. Neither the one nor the other may give out sentence against one who is not convict, or whose offence is not proved. Both of them have a certain kind of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori. For though the Ecclesiastical power be spiritual, and exercised about such things as belong to the inward man only; yet as Dr. Rivet upon the Decalogue, pag. 260, 261. saith truly, there is a two-fold power of external jurisdiction which is exercised in foro exteriori: one by Church-Censures, Excommunication, lesser and greater, which is not committed to the Magistrate, but to Church-Officers: Another, which is Civil and coercive, and that is the Magistrates. But Mr. Coleman told us, he was persuaded it will trouble the whole World to bound Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdiction, the one from the other; Maledicis pag. 7. Well: I have given ten agreements. I will now give ten differences.
The difference between them is great; they differ in their causes, effects, objects, adjuncts, correlations, executions, and ultimate terminations.
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The following selections are taken from George Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod Blossoming (1646).
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7. That there is a distinction between Magistracy and Ministery, even Jure Divino. That the civill Magistrate hath not power to abolish or continuate the Ministery in abstracto at his pleasure; nor yet to make or unmake Ministers in concreto, that is, to ordain or depose Ministers, as he thinks fit.
8. As the Offices are distinct (g) so is the power; Magistrates may do what Ministers may not doe: and Ministers may doe what Magistrates may not do.
9. It is Juris Communis, a principle of common equity and naturall reason, that the directive Judgement in any matter doth chiefly belong to such as (by their profession and vocation) are devoted and set apart to the study and knowledge of such matters, and (in that respect) supposed to be ablest and fittest to give Judgement thereof. A consultation of Physicians is called for, when the Magistrate desires to know the nature, symptomes, or cure of some dangerous disease. A consultation of Lawyers, in Legall questions. A Councell of War in military expeditions. If the Magistrate be in a ship at Sea, he takes not on him the directive part of Navigation, which belongs to the master, with the mates and pilot. Neither doth the master of the ship (if it come to a Sea-fight) take on him the directive part in the fighting, which belongs to the Captain. And so in all other cases, Artifici in sua arte credendum. Wherefore though the Judgement of Christian prudence and discretion belongs to every Christian, and to the Magistrate in his Station; and though the Magistrate may be, and sometime is learned in the Scriptures, and well acquainted with the principles of true Divinity, yet ut plurimum, and ordinarily, especially in a rightly Reformed and well constituted Church, Ministers are to be supposed to be fittest and ablest to give a directive Judgement in things and causes Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall: with whom also other ruling Church-Officers do assist and joyne, who are more experimentally and practically (they ought also, and diverse times are more Theoretically) acquainted with the right way and rules of Church-government and censures; then the civill Magistrate (when he is no ruling Elder in the Church, which is but accidentall) can be rationally or ordinarily supposed to be.
10. There is some power of Governement, in the Church given to the Ministery by Christ: else why are they said to be set over us in the Lord, and called Rulers and Governours, as we shall see afterward?
[171-172]
Finally, The Presbyteriall Government hath no such liberty nor arbitrarinesse, as Civill or Military Government hath: there being in all civill or temporall affairs a great deal of latitude left to those who manage the same, so that they command nor act nothing against the Word of God. But Presbyteriall Government is tyed up to the rules of Scripture, in all such particulars as are properly spirituall and proper to the Church; Though in other particular, occasional circumstances of times, places, accommodations, and the like, the same light of nature and reason guideth both Church and State; yet in things properly Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall, there is not near so much latitude left to the Presbytery, as there is in civill affairs to the Magistrate.
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The following is a chapter in Thoughts on Religious Experience (1844) by the first president of Princeton Seminary, Archibald Alexander. One of my all-time favorite books and a high-watermark treatment of the subject from a confessionally Presbyterian perspective. This particular chapter deals with the sensitive and difficult subject of “melancholy” and “insanity,” or what we might call medical health. It is noteworthy how very thoughtful he was on the topic, acknowledging that trouble of the mind is not always or exclusively a purely spiritual disorder; and that physicians of the soul ought to partner as far as possible with physicians of the body in treatment.
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CHAPTER IV.
Causes of diversity in experience continued—Effect of temperament—Melancholy—Advice to the friends of persons thus affected—Illustrative cases—Causes of melancholy and insanity.
We have before shown how the principle of spiritual life is affected in its appearance by two circumstances—the degree of vigor given to it in its commencement, and the degree of knowledge and maturity of judgment which one may possess above another. We now come to another pregnant cause of the great variety which is found in the exercises and comforts of real Christians, and that is the difference of temperament which is so familiar, and which so frequently modifies the characters, as well as the feelings of men in other matters. There can be no doubt, I think, that the susceptibility of lively emotion is exceedingly different in men under the same circumstances. People of strong affections and ardent temperament, upon an unexpected bereavement of a beloved wife or child, are thrown into an agony of grief which is scarcely tolerable; while those of a cold, phlegmatic temperament seem to suffer no exquisite anguish from this or any other cause. Not that they possess more fortitude or resignation, for the contrary may be the fact; but their susceptibilities are less acute. And this disparity appears in nothing more remarkably than in the tendency to entertain different degrees of hope or fear in similar circumstances. For while some will hope whenever there is the smallest ground for a favorable result, others are sure to fear the worst which can possibly happen; and their apprehensions are proportioned to the magnitude of the interest at stake.
Now, is it amazing that men’s religious feelings should be affected by the same causes? When two exercised people speak of their convictions, their sorrows and their hopes, is it not to be expected that with the same truths before their minds, those of a optimistic temperament will experience more sensible emotions, and, upon the same evidence, entertain more confident hopes than those of a contrary disposition? And, of necessity, the joy of the one will be much more lively than that of the other. Thus, two people may be found, whose experience may have been very similar as to their conviction of sin and exercise of faith and repentance; and yet the one will express a strong confidence of having passed from death unto life, while the other is afraid to express a trembling hope. Of these two classes of Christians, the first is the more comfortable; while the latter the safer, as being unwilling to be satisfied with any evidence but the strongest.
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