A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of…

(3.) The preserving of the Church in its purity and order, 1 Cor. 5.6, 7. all to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Fourthly, The causes of it or the grounds and reasons on which the Church may proceed unto sentence ⟨p. 205⟩against any offending persons. Now these are no other but such as they judge according to the Gospel, that the Lord Christ will proceed upon in his final judgement at the last day. For the Church judgeth in the name and authority of Christ, and are to exclude none from its communion, but those whom they find by the rule, that he himself excludes from his Kingdom; and so that which they bind on earth, is bound by him in Heaven, Matth. 18.18. And their sentence herein is to be declared, as the declaration of the sentence which the Head of the Church, and Judge of all, will pronounce at the last day; only with this difference, that it is also made known, that this sentence of theirs, is not final or decretory, but in order to the prevention of that which will be so, unless the evil be repented of. Now although the particular evils, sins, or offences, that may render a person obnoxious unto this censure and sentence, are not to be enumerated, by reason of the variety of circumstances which change the nature of actions, yet they may ⟨p. 206⟩in general be referred unto these heads.

Fourthly, The causes of it or the grounds and reasons on which the Church may proceed unto sentence ⟨p. 205⟩against any offending persons. Now these are no other but such as they judge according to the Gospel, that the Lord Christ will proceed upon in his finall judgement at the last day. For the Church judgeth in the name and authority of Christ, and are to exclude none from its communion, but those whom they find by the rule, that he himself excludes from his Kingdom; and so that which they bind on earth, is bound by him in Heaven,