2. They proceeded after all their deliberative inquiries and disputes decisively to conclude and determine the matter, ver. 20-30. The result of the synod (as there is evident) is threefold. 1. To set down in writing their decrees and determinations. 2. To signify those decrees in an epistle to the brethren at Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. 3. To send these letters by some from among themselves, viz. Judas and Silas, together with Paul and Barnabas, to all the churches that were offended or endangered, that both by written decrees and word of mouth, the churches might be established in faith and peace.
Fifthly, Here were several authoritative and juridical acts of power, put forth in this synod, according to the exigency of the present distempers of the churches. This appears plainly,
1. By the proceedings of the synod in accommodating a suitable and proportionable remedy to every malady at that time distempering the Church, viz. a triple medicine for a threefold disease.
1. Against the heresy broached, viz. that they must be circumcised and keep the ceremonial "law of Moses, or else they could not be saved," Acts xv. 2. The synod put forth a doctrinal power, in confutation of the heresy, and clear vindication of the truth, about the great point of "justification by faith without the works of the law," Acts xv. 7-23; and (Independents themselves being judges) a doctrinal decision of matters of faith by a lawful synod, far surpasseth the doctrinal determination of any single teacher, or of the presbytery of any single congregation; and is to be reverently received of the churches as a binding ordinance of Christ.
2. Against the schism, occasioned by the doctrine of the false teachers that troubled the Church, Acts xv. 1, 2, the synod put forth a censuring power, stigmatizing the false teachers with the infamous brands of troubling the Church with words, subverting of souls, and (tacitly, as some conceive from that expression, "Unto whom we gave no such commandment," ver. 24) of belying the apostles and elders of Jerusalem, as if they had sent them abroad to preach this doctrine.
Object. But the synod proceeded not properly to censure the false teachers by any ecclesiastical admonition, or excommunication; therefore the power exercised in the synod was only doctrinal, and not properly juridical.
Ans. 1. They censured them in some degree, and that with a mark of infamy, ver. 24, as was manifested. And this was not only a warning and hint to the churches, to note such false teachers, avoid them, and withdraw from them, compare Rom. xvi. 17, 18, with 1 Tim. vi. 3-5; but also was a virtual admonition to the false teachers themselves, while their doctrines and ways were so expressly condemned. 2. They proceeded not to present excommunication, it is granted; nor was it at first dash seasonable, prudent, or needful. But the synod knew well, that if these false teachers, after this synodal mark of disgrace set upon them, should still persist in their course, incurably and incorrigibly obstinate, they might in due time be excommunicated by course; it being a clear case in itself that such heretics or schismatics, as otherwise cannot be reduced, are not to be suffered, but to be cast out of the churches. "An heretic, after once or twice admonition, reject," Tit. iii. 10, 11; see Rev. ii. 2, 14, 20.
3. Against the scandal of the weak Jews, and their heart-estrangement from the Gentiles, who neglected their ceremonial observances, as also against the scandal of the Gentiles, who were much troubled and offended at the urging of circumcision, and the keeping of the law as necessary to salvation, ver. 1, 2, 19, 24, the synod put forth an ordering or regulating power, framing practical rules or constitutions for the healing of the scandal, and for prevention of the spreading of it, commanding the brethren of the several churches to abstain from divers things that might any way occasion the same: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to impose" (or lay) "upon you no further burden than these necessary things," Acts xv. 28, 29. Here is burden and necessary things, (so judged to be necessary for those times, and that state of the Church,) and imposing of these upon the churches: will not this amount to a plain ordering power and authority? Especially considering that the word to impose, or lay on, when it is used of the judgment, act, or sentence of an assembly, ordinarily signifies an authoritative judgment, or decree, as, "Why tempt ye God, to lay, or impose, a yoke upon the neck of the disciples?" Acts xv. 10. Thus some in the synod endeavored to carry the synod with themselves, authoritatively to have imposed the ceremonies upon the churches; whom Peter thus withstands. So, "They bind heavy burdens, and hard to be borne, and impose them upon men's shoulders," Matt, xxiii. 4: and this laying on of burdens by the Pharisees, was not by a bare doctrinal declaring, but by an authoritative commanding, as seems by that, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men," Matt. xv. 9.
2. By the title or denomination given to the synodal results contained in their letters sent to the brethren. They are styled, "The decrees ordained, or judged," Acts xvi. 4. Here are plainly juridical authoritative constitutions. For it is very observable,
That wheresoever the words translated decree or decrees are found in the New Testament, thereby are denoted, laws, statutes, or decrees: as "Decrees of Cæsar," Acts xvii. 7: "A decree from Cæsar," Luke ii. 1: Moses' ceremonial law, "The hand-writing to ordinances," Col. ii. 14: "The law of commandments in ordinances," Eph. ii. 15: and this word is found used only in these five places in the whole New Testament: and the Septuagint interpreters often use the word in the Old Testament to this purpose; for laws, Dan. vi. 8; for decrees, Dan. ii. 13, and iii. 10, 29, and iv. 3, and vi. 9.