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CORRECTIVE
CHURCH DISCIPLINE:
with a
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCRIPTURAL
PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH IT IS BASED.
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BY P. H. MELL |
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PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSTY OF GEORGIA, AUTHOR OF ?BAPTISM IN
ITS MODE
AND SUBJECTS,? ?SAINTS? PERSERVERANCE.?
CHARLESTON, S.C.:
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION
1. None but converted persons authorized to be members
2. Churches liable to disorders
3. The Savior prescribes the remedies
DIFFERENT KINDS OF OFFENCES.
Two kinds?public and private
PRIVATE OFFENCES.
1. Not necessarily secret
2. Specific character of
PUBLIC OFFENCES.
1. Not necessarily committed publicly
2. Subdivided into two classes
First Class.?Offences against religion and morality
Second Class.?Offences against the church
1. Open opposition to the faith and
practice of the church
2. Refusing to attend the meetings of
3. Rebellion against its lawful
authority
4. Attempts to produce schism
Definitions of the two kinds of offence
MIXED OFFENCES.
The two kinds sometimes blended together
CHAPTER II.
THE TREATMENT OF THE TWO KINDS OF OFFENCE.
PRIVATE OFFENSES
1. First step. Go to him
2. Obj.?He is an unscrupulous man
3. The Saviour?s directions to be implicitly obeyed
4. Second step. Tell him his fault
5. Evils attendant upon a resort to the newspapers
6. Unsatisfactory results of such resort
7. Reasons why the offender should be told his faults
1. He may have been misconceived
2. He may be reclaimed
8. Third step. Tell him his fault between him and thee alone
9. Four reasons for this
10. When a mutual friend may interpose between parties
11. Fourth step. Take one or two more
12. Reasons for this
13. Fifth step. Tell it to the church
14. Idea of reclamation implied
TREATMENT OF PUBLIC OFFENCES.
1. Gospel steps not to be taken in open immorality
2. Public offenders to be summoned before the church
1. Every facility to be afforded him to meet the charge
2. The formality of a court of justice not to be observed
3. Where alone the offender has ground of complaint
3. To be promptly expelled when proved guilty of immorality
4. Is the first instance of intoxication to be an exception?
Should be promptly expelled
1. For the sake of public morals and the reputation of the
church
2. For his own good
3. As a warning to others
5. Obj.?Do not the Scriptures say, if he confess, we should forgive?
6. They refer exclusively to private offences
MIXED OFFENCES.
1. The course to be pursued in
2. To be treated as public offences
3. Analogy from legal science
CHAPTER III.
QUESTIONS SUGGESTED
BY THE PREVIOUS DISCUSSION.
1. What shall be done when the aggrieved attempts to bring in
private offences without previous gospel steps?
1. The Moderator to rule him out of order
2. In mixed offences, the complaint to be entertained
3. No injury done to the accused if the church differ from him as to the nature
of the offence
4. How the complainant is to be treated who violates the
Savior?s rule
5. Quotation from Elder J. S. Baker
2. Suppose complainant drops the subject: what then?
3. Whose duty to arraign a public offender?
Any one can arraign
1. How to act when there is but one witness
2. In case of a report against a brother
CHAPTER IV.
THE FEELINGS AND ACTIONS APPROPRIATE TO A
PIOUS MAN WHO HAS BEEN UNJUSTLY ACCUSED.
1. Innocence no infallible protection against unjust
accusation
2. Sometimes the victim of prejudice
3. Of malice
4. Of jealousy and envy
What his feelings and deportment
1. He submits to the Divine will
2. In all proper ways defends himself
3. Does not indulge in the spirit of his persecutors, nor resort to the means
employed by them
4. Seeks the interest of the church and of the cause of
Christ
CHAPTER V.
WHAT IS ?THE CHURCH,? TO WHICH
THE NEW TESTAMENT GIVES JURISDICTION
OVER OFFICES?
1. The word ?church? used in two senses
First. The church universal
1. The meaning of ecclesia in this connection
2. The constituents of this assembly
3. This is not the body to whom offences are referred
4. The Baptist denomination and the church universal not synonymous
(1) Some in the Baptist denomination
may not have been converted
(2) Many who have been saved have not belonged to the Baptist denomination
(3) The use of the word ?church? in
this sense not admissible
(4) Such a body destitute of
organization
5. Pertinence of the term as applied to the church universal
Second. The word ?church? applied to a local body
1. Composed of those immersed upon a profession of faith
2. This the body to whom jurisdiction over offences is given
CHAPTER VI.
THE RELATION THE PASTOR SUSTAINS
TO CORRECTIVE DISCIPLINE.
1. The importance of the question
2. Answered:?
(1) Upon the supposition that the pastor is himself involved
(2) Supposing him to be free from entanglement
3. His duty in private dealing
1. Should endeavor by his ministry to prevent variance
2. Should see that private dealing be introduced scripturally
3. Should maintain strict neutrality between the parties
4. Should bring the pulpit to bear
To prevent the formation of parties
To make those at variance tired of
their relations
4. The relation he sustains to cases of public dealing
Same principles hold good
CHAPTER VII.
DEDUCTIONS FROM PREVIOUS PRINCIPLES?SOVEREIGNTY AND INDEPENDENCE.
Deduction 1. Local churches have exclusive jurisdiction over
their members
1. Appeal to be made only to the New Testament
1. The Savior gave such jurisdiction
2. Paul acknowledges it
3. A church commended for exercising it
4. Churches condemned for not exercising it
2. Every church has supreme jurisdiction over its members
3. Objection to the use of the term ?sovereign?
4. Answered?1. The term is apposite to convey the idea
2. The idea shown to be scriptural
3. Difference between sovereign and independence
5. Question 1.?May a member refuse to be tried?
Answer?No way to escape a trial
6. Quest. 2.?Suppose he does actually refuse
Ans.?This of itself sufficient ground of expulsion
7. Quest. 3.?Suppose the arraigned differs from the church as to the kind
of offence, &c
1. The church the only judge of the law and the fact
2. After the arraigned raises the point of order, he is free from responsibility
8. Quest. 4.?Does not a church that rejects the law in Matt. xviii. cease
to be a church?
1. The true case stated
2. The plea upon the principle that an error annihilates a
church
3. Shown not to be sustained by the Scriptures
9. The arraigned not to be the judge in his own case
10. Quotation from Elder J. S. Baker
11. Additional argument in favor of sovereignty
12. The church has executive authority
13. Quest. 1.?May a church expel by majority?
14. Unanimity desirable
1. Means adopted by some churches to secure unanimity
2. This implies that the majority must rule
15. Arguments to show that a majority can expel
Quotation from Elder J. S. Baker on the point
16. Quest. 2.?May a minority never unchurch the majority?
17. Answered in the affirmative
1. Shown on what principle
2. Not applicable to a case of discipline
18. Can an arraigned man and his supporters, the minority, unchurch?
Shown that on this principle no one of adroitness can
be tried
19. If the majority disregard the law in Matt. xviii, can the
minority unchurch?
1. To mistake the nature of the offence is not to
?disregard?? the law
2. To unintentionally misapply the law, is not to ?disregard?
it
3. What alone is a disregard
20. A minority thus attempting to shield one arraigned should be excommunicated
CHAPTER VIII.
CHURCH SOVEREIGNTY (continued)?TRIAL OF MINISTERS.
1. Can a minority be tried without Presbytery or Council?
1. Shown that they can be
2. Writers not all agreed
2. No passage in the Bible, in direct terms, prescribes a Presbytery
3. Paul directs the Galatians to expel false ministers
4. Christ praises the Ephesians for expelling false apostles
5. Peter acknowledged the jurisdiction of his church over him
6. Objection.?The ministry was conferred by a Presbytery, &c
7. Preliminary inquiry
8. What is a minister?
1. The prerogative to preach not peculiar to him
2. His prerogative to administer the ordinances
9. What is ordination?
1. It does not impart any grace or qualification
2. Not designed to authorize him to preach
3. A solemn public recognition
10. What relation does a Presbytery bear to ordination?
1. Meaning of Presbytery
2. Different custom in the Northern States
3. In what liable to misconstruction, and in what a
corrective
11. Two designs in the use of a Presbytery or Council
12. Return to the objection
13. The Presbytery does not confer the office or make the minister
1. It does not take the same power to unmake as to make
2. God alone can unmake
3. He does interpose by conferring upon the church delegated sovereignty
14. Obj. 2.?A Presbytery was necessary to give confidence: the same
necessary to withdraw it
1. More needed to prove ministerial qualification than to
detect crime
2. A church competent to pass upon a charge of crime
15. Obj. 3.?To try without a Presbytery implies the right to ordain
without
1. A church can ordain, though inexpedient
2. Ordination a testimony
3. Not influential without a Presbytery
16. The church does not ordain for herself, nor does the Council
17. Obj. 4.?One ought to be tried by his peers
18. The members of the church the minister?s peer
19. Ministers subject to the churches
20. A Church may call in a Council
CHAPTER IX.
DEDUCTIONS?CHURCH INDEPENDENCE?ASSOCIATIONS
AND COUNCILS.
1. The decision of the church is final
2. Incautious admission
3. The New Testament not silent on the subjects of excommunicating
4. Precepts, in two respects
5. Directions as to the disposition to be made of the incorrigible
6. Directions as to our feelings and deportment toward the excommunicated
7. Scripture example
8. General principles forbid one church to receive the expelled of another
1. The subordination of the church to Christ
2. Every church constituted independent
Reception and expulsion not
commensurate nor correlative
Church independence illustrated by a
circuit court
3. Church union
9. Three kinds of plea by way of objection
10. The plea explanatory
1st. You do restore to fellowship or Christian union is
destroyed
2d. Your act would be an interference
11. The plea from expediency
Ans.?The remedy proposed will introduce a greater evil
than it corrects
12. Plea from exceptional cases, Masons, anti-missionaries, &c
1. One joins the Masons, impelled not by conscience, but by motives of
expediency
2. One becomes a missionary conscientiously
1. Duty of a church-member to seek
the harmony of his church
No necessity for one to allow himself to be expelled for being a Mason
No excommunicate to be received unless fellowship be withdrawn from the church
expelling
2. Christian union not effected when one is received who has been expelled for
being a missionary
13. Quest. 1.?Can one expelled apply to his Association or to a Council?
1. The Scriptures know nothing of Associations and Councils
The germ of Associations and Councils not to be found in the meeting in
Jerusalem
2. Associations of modern date
How they can be useful
How they can be perverted
3. Council, when useful
Mere advisory bodies called into
existence by the church
14. Ques. 2.?May not churches err?
The way in which they are most likely to err
15. Quest. 3.?What remedy has one unjustly expelled?
Ans.?None, excepting from the church expelling
16. Uses to which he may put his expulsion
1. He may submit humbly to the will of God
2. He may suffer as a martyr
3. He may wait patiently, and by a well-ordered life and godly conversation
disabuse the minds of his brethren
4. He may find consolation in the fact that expulsion from the church is not
expulsion from the kingdom of
heaven
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