Aarons Rod Blossoming, Book 3 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. That Tell it to the Church hath more in it, then, Tell it unto a greater number.
THere is yet another interpretation of these words invented to elude the argument for Ecclesiasticall government and censures from Mat. 18. Tell it unto the Church, that is, if the offending brother will neither hearken to private admonition, nor to admonition before two or three witnesses, then tell it unto many or unto a greater company. This cals to mind uSutcliv de Presbyt. cap. 1.Dr Sutcliffes glosse upon the word Presbytery, 1 Tim. 4. 14. that it signifieth Presbyters or Ministers non juris vinculo, sed utcunque collectos, as if the occasionall meeting of some Presbyters in Westminster Hall, or upon the Exchange, or in a journey, or at a buriall, were a Presbytery with power to lay on hands.
That interpretation of the word Church is no better. But that I may reject nothing without reason, I desire it may be considered, 1. Whether either in Scripture, or in any Greeke Lexicon, or in any Classick author, it can be found that the word foreign was ever used to signifie meerly a greater number or company then two or three, not called out and imbodied together for government or worship. For my part I could never yet finde where the simple majority of the number maketh the denomination of foreign. I finde the word sometimes (yet very seldome) used of an unlawfull assembly combining or joyning together to evill: the reason I take to be this, because they pretended to be authorised as a lawfull assembly; so Christ called Iudas, friend, when he came to betray him with a kisse. But since the word foreign Matth. 18. 17. doth signifie a lawfull assembly, (as all doe confesse) I desire some testimony of Scripture or approved authors, where this name is given to a lawfull assembly, which was not imbodied for worship or government, but had the name of foreign simply because of the majority of number. Sure I am foreign is at least caetus evocatus, an assembly called forth; and every offended brother hath not from Christ the priviledge of gathering a Church. 2. If by tell it unto the Church were meant no more but this, tell it unto a greater number, then if the offender doe not heare the Church, there must be recourse unto some others distinct from the Church, for the more authoritative and ultimate determination, (unlesse it be said that there is no remedy for offences, but in a greater number which each man shall make choice of) But where is their more effectuall remedy, or where will they fixe the ultimate degree of proceedings? 3. When Christ saith Tell it unto the Church, and if he neglect to heare the Church, &c. whether respect be had to the forme of the Hebrews, or to the forme of the Grecians, the Church will still have a ruling power. In the old Testament, the originall giveth the name Kahal, Church, (which is the word used in the Hebrew Evangel of Matthew published by Munsterus, chap. 18. vers. 17.) and the Septuagints the name foreign to the Elders and Rulers of Israel, as 1 Chro. 13. 2. 4. & 29. 1. 2 Chro. 1. 3. and in other places. And that which is said of the Elders, Deut. 19. 12. I…sh. 20. …. is said of the Congregation or Church, Num. 35. 24. Ios. 20. 6. So Exod. 12. 3. compared with vers. 21. The Septuagints also render Kahal by foreign Prov. 26. 26. It was not therefore to any assembly, but to an assembly of rulers, that causes were brought in the old Testament. If we turne to the Heathen Grecians, among them foreign had a power of jurisdiction to judge and determine causes, as is manifest from Acts 19. 38. 39. There foreign was of two sorts, as Suidas, Budaeus, Stephanus, and others have observed. 1. foreign and foreign, a lawfull set fixed assembly, which met at ordinary diets (which is meant in that place of the Acts last cited) It was also called foreign because of the jurisdiction and ruling power which was seated in it. Wherein I am confirmed by this passage of Aristotle polit. lib. 3. cap. 11. foreign. for the assembly, saith he, hath the government or arbitrement of all such things; He is speaking of the choosing of Magistrates, and of craving an account of their administration. 2. foreign which was indicted and called pro re nata, upon some urgent extraordinary cause, and it was concio magnatum s…ve optimatum, in which the people were not present, as in the other. It was therefore rightly noted by Passor that Demosthenes useth the word foreign pro concione magnatum. Afterward the Roman Senate was called foreign, and sometimes foreign without an adjection. foreign therefore among the Heathen Grecians (from whom the word came) was not any assembly, but an assembly which had a jurisdiction or ruling power. It shall not be in vaine to adde that foreign to appeale to a superiour Ruler commeth from the same originall verbe from which commeth foreign.
4. The Church mentioned Matth. 18. 17. hath a forensicall or juridicall power, as appeareth by that of the two or three witnesses vers. 16. which relateth to a Juridicall proceeding in the trying and punishing of offences, as M. Prynne hath observed. Peradventure some man will say, that the two or three witnesses here are brought in onelyonly to be witnesses to the admonition, or to make the admonition the more effectuall, and the more to be regarded, but not as if any use were to be made of these witnesses, to prove the fact or offence it selfe before the Church, if there be occasion. I answer, either it must be supposed here that the trespasse was seen or knowne onelyonly by him that gives the first rebuke privately, or that it was also seen or known by those two or three witnesses. If the former, it is much disputed among Schoolmen whether he that rebukes his offending brother be to proceed any further than a private rebuke for a private offence, or whether he is to stop at private rebukes, and not to take witnesses with him (which divers thinke to be unfit and disallowed, as being an officious and unnecessary irritation of the offending brother by the spreading of his shame, a making of a private sinne to become scandalous to others, as likewise an engaging of witnesses to assist in the admonition and rebuke by a blinde and implicite faith) for my part I shall not need here to dispute this point: for what ever ought to be done, or ought not to be done in this case, when the trespasse is known to one onelyonly: yet in the other case when besides him that rebukes there are two or three more which can be witnesses of the fact or trespasse committed (the trespasse being yet not publiquely divulged) it can not be denied, that these witnesses of the fact are to be brought unto and confronted with the offender, when he cannot be gained by private rebuke, and (if need be) prove it afterward before the Church. Which I have before noted out of Durand. And xDe actib. super…at. Disp. 28. D…b. 9. Item qua…do peccatum corripiendi p…aeter me est uni vel alteri notum, etiam facile mihi est hos post primam correp ionem adjungere mihi socios ac testes secundae …. Cum eni… hi non minus quàm ego ejus pecc…tum noverint, aequaliter poterunt ipsum de hoc corripere, illudúe poste…, si opus …, coram Superior… testari. Quare communiter omnes censent in eo casu testes …sse adhibendos, si prima correptio non suerit efficax. Sed tota difficultas est quando pecca…um est mihi soli notum. Qua in re triplex est …. Prima docet quando tunc proximus non …mendatur secreta me admonitione, non esse ulterius p…ogrediendum, &c.Aegidius de Coninck tels us (in whatsoever other case witnesses are to be taken, or are not to be taken) in this case all doe consent that witnesses are to be taken.
Concerning the taking of witnesses, when the trespasse is known to me alone, there are three different opinions. 1. That when I have rebuked the offender privately, and cannot gaine him, I am to proceed no further, but have done my duty and must leave the event to God. 2. That when a secret admonition is not effectuall▪ witnesses are to be taken, in case the offender so admonished continue in his sinne, or in case his relapse be feared and expected, that the witnesses may observe such continuing or relapse in sinne, and then assist and joyne in rebuking him, and if need be (that is, in case of his contumacy) to prove the fact before the Church. 3. That even when his continuance or relapse in sinne can not be observed, (and so can not be afterward proved by witnesses) yet the second admonition is to be given before witn…sses, when the first admonition given privately hath not gained the offender. Of these let the Reader judge. Tis enough for the point now in hand, that when witnesses can be had to prove the trespasse committed, they ought to be brought, first before the offender, and then (if he continue obstinate) before the Church to prove the fact: and they must be three, or two at the least, which I doe not see how it can be thought necessary, if we suppose that the sinne is not known to any but to me alone who give tho first rebuke; for if there must be a witnesse of my second admonition, why may not one witnesse joyn with me as well as two, when I can not have two, but one onelyonly, willing and ready to …oyn with me. But now a necessity of precept lies on me, that I must have two witnesses at least, which cannot be otherwise understood, but in reference to a forensicall proceeding afterwards, if need be.
5. That interpretation which now I speak against, while it goeth about to avoyd a power of Jurisdiction and Censure in this Text, it doth subject him that is reproved by another, to a heavier yoke, and brings him into a greater servitude. For though a man be not disobedient nor contumacious unto any Court Civill or Ecclesiasticall, yet if he doth not hearken to such a number, as the party offended shall declare the case unto (being a greater number then two or three) he must be by and by esteemed and avoyded as an Heathen man and a Publican.
6. This interpretation, as it is fathered upon Grotius, so it may be confuted out of Grotius upon the very place. He expounds Tell it unto the Church by the same words which Drusius citeth, è libro Musar. declare it coram multis, before many. But is this any other then foreign the many spoken of 2 Cor 2. 6? a place cited by Grotius himselfe, together with foreign before all, 1 Tim. 5. 20. Now these were acts of Ecclesiasticall power and authority, not simply the acts of a greater number. He tels us also it was the manner among the Jewes to referre the businesse ad multitudinem foreign, to the assembly of those who were of the same way, or followed the same rites, the judgements of which multitude (saith he) seniores tanquam praesides moderabantur, the Elders as Presidents did moderate. He further cleares it out of Tertullian apol. cap. 39. where speaking of the Churches or assemblies of Christians, he saith: ibidem etiam exhortationes, castigationes & censura divina &c. praesident probati quique seniores. Where there are also exhortations, corrections, and Divine censure, &c. all the approved Elders doe preside. And is not this the very thing we contend for?
I hope I may now conclude that Tell the Church is neither meant of the civill Magistrate, nor simply of a greater number, but of the Elders or (as others expresse it better) of the Eldership or Assembly of Elders; So Stephanus, Scapula, and Pasor in the word foreign, Calvin, Bucerus, Illyricus, Beza, Hunnius, Tossanus, Pareus, Cartwright, Camero, Diodati, the Dutch annotations, all upon the place. Marlorat in Thesauro in the word Ecclesia Zanchius in 4. Praec. pag. 741. Iunius Animad. in Bell. Contr. 3. lib. 1. cap. 6. Gerhard loc. theol. Tom. 6. pag. 137. Meisuerus Disput. de regim. Eccles. quaest. 1. Trelcatius Instit. Theol. lib. 1. pag. 291. Polanus Syntag. lib. 7. cap. 1. Bullinger in 1 Cor. 5. 4. Whittaker. de Ecclesia quaest. 1. cap. 2. Danaeus in 1 Tim. pag. 246. 394. These and many more understand that neither the Magistrate nor the multitude of the Church, nor simply a great number, is meant by the Church Matth. 18. but the Elders or Ecclesiasticall senate, who have the name of the Church, partly, by a Syn…cdoche because they are a chief part of the Church (as otherwhere the people or flock distinct from the Elders, is called the Church Act. 20. 28.) partly, because of their eminent station and principall function in the Church, as we say we have seen such a mans Picture, when haply tis but from the shoulders upward: partly, because the Elders act in all matters of importance, so as they carry along with them the knowledge and consent of the Church. (And therefore according to Salmeron his observation Tom. 4. part. 3. Tract. 9. Christ would not say, Tell the officers or Rulers of the Church, but Tell the Church, because an obstinate offender is not to be excommunicate secretly or in a corner, but with the knowledge and consent of the whole Church: so that for striking of the sinner with the greater fear and shame, in regard of that knowledge and consent of the Church, the telling of the officers is called the telling of the Church:) partly also, because of the ordinary manner of speaking in the like cases; that which is done by the Parliament is done by the Kingdom, and that which is done by the common Councell is done by the City. Among the Jewes with whom Christ and his Apostles were conversant this manner of speaking was usuall. Danaeus (where before cited) citeth R. David Kimchi upon Ose. 5. noting that the name of the house of Israel is often put for the Sanhedrin in Scripture. Tis certaine the Sanhedrin hath divers times the name Kabal in the Hebrew and foreign in the Greek of the old Testament, Which is acknowledged even by those who have contended for a kind of popular Government in the Church. See Guide unto Zion pag. 5. Ainsworth in his Counterpoison pag. 113.