After which the Moderator said—You, who are the congregation of God’s people, are called of God to concur in this action. You have heard the ordinance and sentence that this reverend Assembly have given out against the eight persons before named; and you may easily believe their warrant so to do, by the crimes you have heard, which have been proved to the full. If it had been needful, and that time would have admitted, you should have heard the haill process, whereof the crimes you have heard mentioned are but a small part; for ever the further that we searched, the fouler guiltiness was found in them. And surely when any professor of the Christian religion, or member of the visible Church, especially those who profess themselves Ministers of Christ, be found guilty of such things as are laid to thir men’s charge; and add thereto contumacy, yea great obstinacy, as these men have done, he deserves no less than excommunication, though it be a very terrible sentence. Ye know that the members of this Assembly do nothing at their own hand, neither is it presumption that moves them to do it, for they are commanded of God, and, being commanded, they dare not be so bold as refuse. As there is a necessity laid upon us to preach the gospel, so is there a necessity laid upon us to pronounce this sentence. Ye know, in chap. xviii. of St Matthew’s gospel, our Lord’s commandment is, “If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican;” that is to say, account him as a Turk, or a profane man, a stranger to the household of faith. And 1st Cor. v., St Paul commands the Church of Corinth to cast out the unhappy man that had been guilty of incest; and we have the promise of Jesus Christ, who hath given us this authority, that what we bind on earth shall be also bound in heaven. And, for as mean men as we Ministers are, it shall be found that our sentence shall be ratified; and those who will observe shall see it, that we are sent to Glasgow to pronounce this sentence. Neither is this a new thing in the practice of the Church; from the beginning this sentence was in use. When Adam fell into the great and high sin of disobedience against God’s first command, he was cast out of Paradise, which was an emblem of the Church of God. And you will find, under the law, there are many particular precepts and statutes, excluding unclean and leprous persons from eating of the passover. All which represent, by analogy, this sentence under the gospel. In the New Testament there are several examples likewise. 1st Tim. i., 20. Hymeneus and Philetus are registrate to the end of the world, and branded with a note of reprobation, whom Paul delivered unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. And you may not think but as we have commandment, promise, and practice for our warrant, there is also great necessity for it; for, in such a case as this, God cannot be honoured otherwise. Were it not dishonourable to God to have men guilty of such crimes going to the pulpit to preach to his people? Yea, it were enough to make people loathe the articles of their faith, to hear such men as these take the Covenant of God in their mouths; and therefore it is expedient that the Church of God be purged of such foul scandals as it hath been polluted with in these men’s persons. And this is profitable likewise for the faithful, that they may learn to be wise and holy, and that they fall not into the same faults, lest the same censure come upon them. And truly if the Lord had directed to another remedy for these men, the Kirk of Scotland would have been glad to use it; but there is no other known mean to keep them from the condemnation of the devil, for the mortifying of their flesh, and saving of their souls, than this.
And, as you see it is warrantable, necessary, and profitable on the matter; it is likewise warrantable and necessary as to the manner. For these and the like faults, the Bishops own tyrannous canons ordain excommunication to be pronounced ipso facto. Next, you that please to read the Book of Common Order before the Psalm Book, will find that summar excommunication was appointed by the Kirk of Scotland, in some cases. But we are not to account this summar excommunication; for it is above a year since these men were summoned by the many supplications, bills, and complaints, that were given into the Council-Table for the superstition and idolatry they brought into the worship of God; for the tyranny they brought into the government of the Church, and for the heresy they brought in upon doctrine; and so, all this time, they have got public warning from the Kirk. And, besides all this, they have given in a declinature and protestation against the Kirk of Scotland, and obstinately refuse to hear her; and, therefore, they justly deserve to be accounted as heathens and publicans.
It rests now, before pronouncing the sentence of this reverend and honourable Assembly, that we should call upon God that he may be pleased to join his divine approbation to that which we are to pronounce, that it may be seen by the world to be ratified in heaven.
Great Lord of the heavens and of the earth, who does in them both what seems good in thy own sight—great King and Lawgiver, in thy own church—God eternal and glorious in thy self, but merciful and compassionate to thy people—we, thy servants and children, do again present ourselves before thy Majesty. (The concern of the congregation increasing as the awful part drew near, the amanuensis could not distinctly transcribe more of this very fervent prayer.)
Prayer being ended, the Moderatour pronounced the sentence of excommunication in these words:—
Since the eight persons before-mentioned have declared themselves strangers to the communion of saints, to be without hope of life eternal, and to be slaves of sin, therefore we—the people of God, assembled together for this cause—and I, as their mouth, in the name of the Eternal God, and of his Son the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the direction of this Assembly, do excommunicate the said eight persons from the participation of the Sacraments, from the communion of the visible Church, and from the prayers of the Church; and, so long as they continue obstinate, discharges you all, as ye would not be partakers of their vengeance, from keeping any religious fellowship with them; and thus give them over into the hands of the devil, assuring you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, that except their repentance be evident, the fearful wrath and vengeance of the God of Heaven shall overtake them even in this life, and, after this world, everlasting vengeance.
Beloved, let us not think that this fearful sentence is merely the wind of a man’s voice; surely these unhappy men shall find the truth of it. It is true a farther blindness of mind, and hardness of heart, is one part of the execution of this sentence; but it may be that the Lord of Heaven shall kythe some sensible judgement upon some of them, whereby they may be made spectacles of his wrath, except they repent. Cain thought little, when he was cast out from the face of God, that any evil should befal him; and surely in a lamentable case was he when he lived, and miserable were his offspring and all that joined with him. So was it with cursed Ham and his whole race; they were rooted out, and the judgment of God came on them. In like manner, the fig-tree being cursed, it withered immediately away; and Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead at the first word of Peter. And though we do not say that miracles will be wrought—for God can execute his judgements in an ordinary or extraordinary manner, as best pleaseth him—we have cause to be grieved that there are such rotten members in the body of this Church; and, truly, it is ill with such Members when they are cut off. We speak only from the visible Church, because they declare themselves so obstinate to her, and acknowledge not their mother; and we mean only the destruction of the flesh that their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord; for it is the earnest desire of our hearts that the same may tend to their salvation. And I do verily believe that there are none here so willing to witness their excommunication as they would be to receive them again to the society of the Saints: and that the Lord may in mercy take the blot off them that is this day put upon them in justice.
Now you shall hear the Sentence of the Assembly on the rest of their colleagues.
[For the Sentence, see pages [27], [28].]
After which, the Moderator’s strength being outwearied, he only added—