[417] As Erastianism is a word vaguely used, I subjoin the principal theses in the Book on Excommunication, by Erastus, and his own account of the occasion of his writing it.
"Excommunication is nothing else but a public and solemn exclusion from the sacraments, especially the Lord's Supper, after an investigation by the elders."—Thesis viii.
"In the Old Testament none were debarred from the sacraments on account of immorality of conduct."—Thesis xxiii.
"Christ did not hinder Judas, who betrayed Him, from eating the paschal lamb."—Thesis xxviii.
"It is not the will of Christ that His kingdom in these lands should be circumscribed within narrower limits than He appointed for it anciently amongst the Jews."—Thesis xxxi.
"As in the account given of the celebration of the sacraments we see no mention is made of excommunication, so neither in the history of their institution can anything warranting that practice be discovered."—Thesis xxxvii.
"'Tell it to the church' means nothing else than tell it to the magistrate of thy own people."—Thesis lii.
"I see no reason why the Christian magistrate at the present day should not possess the same power which God commanded the magistrate to exercise in the Jewish commonwealth."—Thesis lxxii.
"If then the Christian magistrate possesses not only authority to settle religion according to the directions given in the Holy Scriptures, and to arrange the ministries thereof, but also, in like manner, to punish crimes, in vain do some among us now meditate the setting up of a new kind of tribunal, which would bring down the magistrate himself to the rank of a subject of other men."—Thesis lxxiv.
According to Erastus, an ignorant man, a heretic, or an apostate should be excluded from the sacraments. But sins were to be punished by the civil magistrate.