Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in…

In the Churches formerly, There was little scruple made, of using in Excommunications, the Form of, Delivering up the Offender to Satan, for the Destruction of the Flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus: By which they meant, That the Offender, now being declared and censured, as one visibly belonging to the Kingdom of Satan, 'twas hoped such a Conviction of his miserable State would hence arise unto his ⟨p. 152⟩Mind, That his Corruption would be thereby mortified, and Salvation furthered.

In the Churches formerly, There was little scruple made, of using in Excommunications, the Form of, Delivering up the Offender to Satan, for the Destruction of the Flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus: By which they meant, That the Offender, now being declared and censured, as one visibly belonging to the Kingdom of Satan, 'twas hoped such a Conviction of his miserable State would hence arise unto his ⟨p. 152⟩Mind, That his Corruption would be thereby mortifyed, and Salvation furthered.

But the Pastors in some of the Churches, have now espoused another Notion of the Traditio Satanae mentioned by the Apostle to the Corinthians, as being a Prerogative Apostolical and Extraordinary. The Sovereign GOD sometimes gave to His Prophets the Power of inflicting Diseases, or Distresses, on the Bodies of ungodly Men, and of pronouncing upon them those Bodily Mischiefs, whereof he has made Satan or the Angel of Death, to be the Executioner; Of such a Power, Moses and Elijah in the Old Testament, and Peter and Paul in the New, have given us Tremendous Examples. And this Power may seem to have been that Virga Apostolica whereof the Apostle speaks, 1 Cor. IV. 21. Shall I come unto you with a Rod? On which the Author of the Ancient Commentary falsely ascribed unto Jerome has this true Gloss, Quali Virga? Quali Petrus venit ad Ananiam et Sapphiram, et Paulus ad Magum; such a Rod as Peter used on Ananias and Sapphira, and such as Paul used on Elymas the Sorcerer. And what Paul did on Hymenaeus and Philetus may be a further Instance of it. When the Apostle decreed the Destruction of the Flesh, unto the Offender whom he delivered unto Satan, the Opposition of the Spirit in the next Clause makes it evident that the Body is intended; He decreed then, that the Body of Offender should be left unto Satanical Impressions and Afflictions, by the Terrors whereof his poor Soul might be awakened unto a Saving Repentance. Chrysostom accordingly, who understood Greek, expounds the ΟΛΕΘΡΟΝ ΣΑΡΚΟΣ as