Burnet on Article XXXIII: Of Excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided

ALL Christians are obliged to a strict purity and Holiness of Life: And every private man is bound to avoid all unnecessary familiarities with Bad and Vicious men: Both because he may be insensibly corrupted by these, and because the World will be from thence disposed to think that he takes pleasure in such Persons, and in their Vices. What every single Christian ought to set as a Rule to himself, ought to be likewise made the Rule of all Christians, as they are constituted in a Body under Guides and Pastors. And as in general, severe Denunciations ought to be often made of the Wrath and Judgments of God against Sinners; so if any that is called a Brother, that is, a Christian, lives in a course of Sin and Scandal, they ought to give warning of such a Person,¹ to all the other Christians, that they may not so much as eat with him, but may separate themselves from him.

In this, private persons ought to avoid the Moroseness and Affectation of saying, Stand by, for I am holier than thou: If one is overtaken in a fault, ² then those who are spiritual ought to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness: Every one considering himself, lest he be also tempted. Excessive Rigor will be always suspected of Hypocrisy, and may drive those on whom it falls, either into Despair on the One hand, or into an Unmanageable Licentiousness on the Other.

The Nature of all Societies must import this, That they have a Power to maintain themselves according to the Design and Rules of their Society. A Combination of men made upon any bottom whatsoever, must be supposed to have a Right to exclude out of their Number, such as may be a Reproach to it, or a Mean to dissolve it: And it must be a main part of the Office and Duty of the Pastors of the Church, to separate the Good from the Bad, to warn the Unruly, and to put from among them wicked persons. There are several Considerations that shew not only the Lawfulness, but the Necessity of such a Practice.

First, That the Contagion of an ill Example, and of bad Practices, may not spread too far to the corrupting of others: Evil communications corrupt good manners. Their Doctrines will eat and spread as a Gangrene. ³ And therefore in order to the preserving the purity of those who are not yet corrupted, it may be necessary to note such persons, and to have no company with them.

A Second Reason relates to the persons themselves, that are so separated, that they may be ashamed: ⁴ That they may be thus pulled out of the fire by the terror of such a proceeding, which ought to be done by Mourning over them, Lamenting their Sins, and Praying for them.

The Apostles made use even of those extraordinary Powers that were given to them for this end. St. Paul delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. And he ordered that the incestuous person at Corinth, should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Iesus. Certainly a Vicious indulgence to Sinners is an encouragement to them to live in Sin: whereas when others about them try all methods for their Recovery, and Mourn for those Sins in which they do perhaps Glory, and do upon that withdraw themselves from all Communication with them, both in Spirituals, and as much as may be in Temporals likewise; this is one of the last means that can be used, in order to the reclaiming of them.

Another Consideration is the Peace and the Honour of the Society. S. Paul wished that they were cut off that troubled the Churches. ⁵ Great care ought to be taken that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed, and to give no occasion to the Enemies of our Faith to reproach us; as if we designed to make Parties, to promote our own Interests, and to turn Religion to a Faction: Excusing such as adhere to us in other things, though they should break out into the most scandalous Violations of the greatest of all the Commandments of God. Such a behaviour towards Excommunicated persons, would also have this further good Effect; It would give great Authority to that Sentence, and fill mens minds with the Awe of it, which must be taken off, when it is observed that men converse familiarly with those that are under it.

These Rules are all founded upon the Principles of Societies, which as they associate upon some common designs, so in order to the pursuing those, must have a power to separate themselves from those who depart from them.

In this Matter there are Extremes of both hands to be avoided: Some have thought, that because the Apostles have in general declared such persons to be accursed, ⁶ or under an Anathema, who preach another Gospel; and such as love not the Lord Iesus, to be Anathema Maranatha, which is generally understood to be a total cutting off, never to be admitted till the Lord comes; that therefore the Church may still put men under an Anathema, for holding such unsound Doctrines, as they think make the Gospel to become another, in part at least, if not in whole; and that she may thereupon, in imitation of another practice of the Apostles, deliver them over unto Satan, casting them out of the protection of Christ, and abandoning them to the Devil: Reckoning that the cutting them off from the Body of Christ, is really the exposing them to the Devil, who goes about as a Roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour. But with what Authority soever the Apostles might upon so great a matter, as the changing the Gospel, or the not loving the Lord Iesus, denounce an Anathema; yet the applying this which they used so seldom, and upon such great occasions, to every Opinion, after a Decision is made in it, as it has carried on the Notion of the Infallibility of the Church, so it has laid a Foundation for much Uncharitableness, and many Animosities: It has widened Breaches, and made them incurable. And unless it is certain that the Church which has so decreed, cannot err, it is a bold assuming of an Authority to which no fallible Body of men can have a Right. That delivery unto Satan was visibly an act of a miraculous Power lodged with the Apostles: For as they struck some blind or dead, so they had an Authority of letting loose Evil Spirits on some to haunt and terrify, or to punish and plague them; that a desperate Evil might be cured by an extreme Remedy. And therefore the Apostles never reckon this among the Standing Functions of the Church: Nor do they give any Charge or Directions about it. They used it themselves, and but seldom. It is true that S. Paul being carried by a just zeal against the Scandal which the incestuous person at Corinth had cast upon the Christian Religion, did adjudg him to this severe degree of Censure: But he judged it, and did only order the Corinthians to publish it, as coming from him, with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ: That so the thing might become the more publick, and that the effects of it might be the more conspicuous. The Primitive Church, that being nearest the Fountain did best understand the Nature of Church-Power, and the Effects of her Censures, thought of nothing in this matter but of denying to suffer Apostates, or rather scandalous persons, to mix with the rest in the Sacrament, or in other parts of Worship. They admitted them upon the profession of their Repentance, by an imposition of Hands, to share in some of the more general parts of the Worship, and even in these they stood by themselves, and at a distance from the rest: And when they had passed through several Degrees in that state of Mourning, they were by steps received back again to the Communion of the Church. This agrees well with all that was said formerly, concerning the Nature and the Ends of Church-Power; Which was given for edification, and not for destruction. ⁷ This is suitable to the designs of the Gospel, both for preserving the Society pure, and for reclaiming those who are otherwise like to be carried away by the Devil in his snare. This is to admonish Sinners as Brethren, and not to use them as Enemies: Whereas the other method looks like a power that designs Destruction rather than Edification, especially when the Secular Arm is called in, and that Princes are required under the Penalties of Deposition, and losing their Dominions, to extirpate and destroy, and that by the cruellest sort of Death, all those whom the Church doth so Anathematize.

We do not deny but that the form of denouncing or declaring Anathemas against Heresies and Hereticks is very Antient. It grew to be a Form expressing horror, and was applied to the Dead as well as to the Living. It was understood to be a cutting such Persons off from the Communion of the Church: if they were still alive, they were not admitted to any Act of Worship: if they were dead, their Names were not to be read at the Altar among those who were then commemorated. But as heat about Opinions encreased, and some lesser matters grew to be more valued then the weightier things both of Law and Gospel; so the adding Anathemas to every point, in which men differed from one another, grew to be a common practice, and swelled up at last to such a pitch, that in the Council of Trent a whole Body of Divinity was put into Canons, and an Anathema was fastened to every one of them. The delivering to Satan was made the common Form of Excommunication; an Act of Apostolical Authority being made a Precedent for the standing practice of the Church. Great Subtilties were also set on foot concerning the force and effect of Church-Censures. The straining this matter too high, has given occasion to extremes on the other hand. If a man is condemned as an Heretick, for that which is no Heresy, but is an Article founded on the Word of God, his Conscience is not at all concerned in any such Censure. Great Modesty and Decency ought indeed to be shewed by private persons, when they dispute against publick Decisions: But unless the Church is Infallible, none can be bound to implicit Faith, or blind Submission. Therefore an Anathema ill founded, cannot hurt him against whom it is thundred. If the Doctrine upon which the Censures and Denunciations of the Church are grounded is true, and if it appears so to him that sets himself against it, he who thus despises the Pastors of the Church, despises Christ: In whose Name, and by whose Authority they are acting. But if he is still under Convictions of his being in the right, when he is indeed in the wrong, then he is in a state of Ignorance, and his Sins are Sins of Ignorance, and they will be judged by that God w ho knows the sincerity of all mens Hearts, and sees into their secretest Thoughts, how [?]ar the Ignorance is wilful and affected, and how far it is sincere and invincible.

And as for those Censures that are founded upon the Proofs that are made of certain Facts that are scandalous, either the person on whom they are charged, knows himself to be really guilty of them, or that he is wronged, either by the Witnesses, or the Pastors, and Judges: If he is indeed guilty, he ought to consider such Censures as the Medicinal Provisions of the Church against Sin: He ought to submit to them, and to such Rebukes and Admonitions, to such publick Confessions, and other Acts of Self-Abasement,⁸ by which he may be recovered out of the snare of the Devil; and may repair the publick Scandal that he has brought upon the Profession of Christianity, and recover the honour of it, which he has blemisht as far as lies in him.

This is the submitting to those that are over him, and the obeying them as those that watch for his soul, and that must give an account of it. But if, on the other hand,⁹ any such person is run down by Falshood and Calumny, he must submit to that Dispensation of God’s Providence that has suffered such a load to be laid upon him: He must not betray his Integrity, he ought to commit his way to God, and to bear his burden patiently. Such a Censure ought not at all to give him too deep an inward concern: For he is sure it is ill founded, and therefore it can have no effect upon his Conscience. God, who knows his Innocence, will acquit him, though all the World should condemn him. He must indeed submit to that separation from the Body of Christians: But he is safe in his secret Appeals to God, who sees not as man sees, but judges righteous Judgment: And such a Censure as this cannot be bound in Heaven.

In the pronouncing the Censures of the Church, great care and tenderness ought to be used; for men are not to be rashly cut off from the Body of Christ; nothing but a wilful Obstinacy in Sin, and a deliberate Contempt of the Rules and Orders of the Church, can justify this Extremity. Scandalous Sinners may be brought under the Medicinal Cure of the Church, and the Offender may be denied all the Privileges of Christians, till he has repaired the Offence that he has given. Here another Extreme has been run into by men, who being jealous of the Tyranny of the Church of Rome, have thought that the World could not be safe from that, unless all Church-Power were destroyed: They have thought that the Ecclesiastical Order is a Body of Men bound by their Office to preach the Gospel, and to offer the Sacraments to all Christians; but that as the Gospel is a Doctrine equally offered to all, in which every man must make the particular Application of the Promises, the Comforts, and the Terrors of it to himself, as he will answer it to God; so they imagin that the Sacraments are in the same promiscuous manner to be offered to all Persons; and that every man is to try and examine himself, and so to partake of them; but that the Clergy have no Authority to deny them to any Person, or to put marks of distinction, or of Infamy on men: And that therefore the Antient Discipline of the Church did arise out of a mutual Compromise of Christians, who in times of Misery and Persecution submitted to such Rules as seemed necessary in that state of things; but that now all the Authority that the Church hath, is founded only on the Law of the Land, and is still subject to it. So that what Changes or Alterations are appointed by the Civil Authority, must take place, in bar to any Laws and Customs of the Church, how Antient or how Universal soever they may be.

In answer to this, it is not to be denied, but that the degrees and extent of this Authority, the methods and the management of it, were at first framed by common consent. In the times of Persecution the Laity who embraced the Christian Religion, were to the Church instead of the Magistrate. The whole concerns of Religion were supported and protected by them; and this gave them a Natural Right to be consulted with in all the decisions of the Church. The Brethren were called to join with the Apostles and Elders in that great Debate concerning the Circumcision of the Gentiles, which was settled at Ierusalem; and of such Practices we find frequent mention in St. Cyprian’s Epistles: The more Eminent among the Laity were then naturally the Patrons of the Churches. But when the Church came under the Protection of Christian Princes and Magistrates, then the Patronage and Protection of it fell to them, upon whom the Peace and Order of the World depended. Yet though all this is acknowledged, we see plainly, that in the New Testament there are many general Rules given for the Government and Order of the Church. Timothy and Titus were appointed to ordain, to admonish, and rebuke, and that before all. The Body of the Christians is required to submit themselves to them, and to obey them; which is not to be carried to an indefinite and boundless degree, but must be limited to that Doctrine which they were to teach, and to such things as depended upon it, or tended to its Establishment and Propagation. From these general Heads we see just grounds to assert such a Power in the Pastors of the Church, as is for Edification, but not for Destruction: and therefore here is a Foundation of Power laid down; though it is not to be denied but that in the application of it, such Prudence and discretion ought to be used, as may make it most likely to attain those Ends for which it is given.

A general Consent in time of Persecution was necessary; otherwise too indiscreet a Rigor might have pulled down that which ought to have been built up. If in a broken state of things a common Consent ought to be much endeavoured and staid for, this is much more necessary in a regular and settled time, with relation to the Civil Authority, under whom the whole Society is put, according to its Constitution. But it can never be supposed that the Authority of the Pastors of the Church, is no other than that of a Lawyer or a Physician to their Clients, who are still at their liberty, and are in no sort bound to follow their directions. In particular Advices with relation to their private Concerns, where no general Rules are agreed on, an Authority is not pretended to; and these may be compared to all other Advices, only with this difference, That the Pastors of the Church watch over the Souls of their people, and must give an account of them. But when things are grown into Method, and general Rules are settled, there the consideration of Edification and Unity, and of maintaining Peace and Order, are such sacred Obligations on every one that has a true regard to Religion, that such as despise all this, may be well look’d on as Heathens and Publicans; and they are so much worse than they, as a secret and well-disguised Traytor is much more dangerous than an open professed Enemy. And though these Words of our Saviour, of telling the Church, may perhaps not be so strictly applicable to this matter, in their primary sense,¹⁰ as our Saviour first spoke them; yet the Nature of things, and the Parity of Reason, may well lead us to conclude, That though those Words did immediately relate to the composing of private differences, and of delating intractable persons to the Synagogues, yet they may be well extended to all those publick Offences which are injuries to the whole Body; and may be now applied to the Christian Church, and to the Pastors and Guides of it, though they related to the Synagogue when they were first spoken.

It is therefore highly congruous both to the whole Design of the Christian Religion, and to many Passages in the New Testament, that there should be Rules set for censuring Offenders, that so they may be reclaimed, or at least ashamed, and that others may fear: And as the final Sentence of every Authority whatsoever, must be the cutting off from the Body all such as continue in a wilful disobedience to the Laws of the Society; so if any who call themselves Christians, will live so as to be a Reproach to that which they profess, they must be cut off and cast out; for if there is any sort of Power in the Church, it must terminate in this. This is the last and highest act of their Authority; it is like Death or Banishment by the Civil Power, which are not proceeded to but upon great occasions, in which milder Censures will not prevail, and where the general good of the Society requires it: So casting out being the last Act of Church-Power, like a Parent’s disinheriting a Child, it ought to be proceeded in with that slowness, and upon such considerations as may well justify the Rigor of it. A wilful Contempt of Order and Authority, carries virtually in it every other Irregularity; because it dissolves the Union of the Body, and destroys that Respect by which all the other ends of Religion are to be artained; and when this is deliberate and fixed, there is no other way of proceeding but by cutting off those who are so refractory, and who set such an ill Example to others.

If the Execution of this should happen to fall under great Disorders, so that many scandalous Persons are not censured, and a promiscuous multitude is suffered to break in upon the most Sacred Performances, this cannot justify private Persons, who upon that do withdraw from the Communion of the Church: For after all that has been said, the Divine Peecept is to every man, to try and examine himself, and not to try and censure others. All Order and Government are destroyed, if private Persons take upon them to judg and censure others; or to separate from any Body, because there are Abuses in the use of this Authority.

Private Confession in the Church of Rome had quite destroyed the Government of the Church, and superseded all the Antient Penitentiary Canons; and the Tyranny of the Church of Rome had set many Ingenious Men on many subtle Contrivances, either to evade the Force of those Canons, to which some regard was still preserved, or to maintain the Order of the Church, in opposition to the Appeals that were made to Rome: And while some pretended to subject all things to the Papal Authority, others studied to keep up the Antient Rules. The Encroachments that the Temporal and Spiritual Courts ware making upon one another, occasioned many Disputes; which being managed by such subtle men as the Civilians and Canonists were, all this brought in a great variety of Cases and Rules into the Courts of the Church: So that instead of the first Simplicity which was evident in the Constitution of the Church, not only for the first Three Centuries, but for a great many more that came afterwards, there grew to be so much Practice, and so many Subterfuges in the Rules and manner of proceeding of those Courts, that the Church has long groaned under it, and has wished to see that effected, which was designed in the beginnings of the Reformation. The Draught of a Reformation of those Courts is still extant; that so instead of the Intricacies, Delays, and other Disorders that have arisen from the Canon Law, we might have another short and plain Body of Rules; which might be managed, as antiently, by Bishops, with the Assistance of their Clergy. But though this is not yet done, and that by reason of it the Tares grow up with the Wheat, we ought to let them grow together, till the great Harvest comes, or at least till a proper Harvest may be given the Church by the Providence of God; in which the good may be distinguished and separated from the bad, without endangering the Ruin of all; which must certainly be the effect of Peoples falling indiscreetly to this, before the time.

Footnotes

1. 1 Cor. 5.11. ↩

2. Gal. 6.1. ↩

3. 2 Tim. 2.17. 2 Thess. 3.14. ↩

4. Jude 23 v. 1 Cor. 5.2, 5, 7. 2 Cor. 2.1, 2, 3. 1 Tim. 1.20. ↩

5. Gal. 5.12. ↩

6. 1 Cor. 16.22. ↩

7. 2 Cor. 10.8. ↩

8. 2 Tim. 2.26. ↩

9. Heb. 13.17. ↩

10. Matt. 18.17. ↩