Chapter XXXVI: Introduction (19)

[11] If any one should doubt that it was the express intention of the makers of the Discipline to place the whole power of retaining or excluding members in the hands of the preachers, he can easily be satisfied by consulting the explanatory notes at first appended to the Discipline, and at one time published with it. These notes were prepared by Bishops Coke and Asbury, who presided in the Conference which formed the Church, and made, or rather adopted, the Discipline. In reference to this matter, the bishops say, “The grand point to be determined is this: whether the final judgment of an offender, in respect both to the guilt and the censure, should be invested in the _minister_ or in the _people_? We shall therefore take a view of this part of our economy; first, in the light of Scripture, and secondly, in that of reason.” Then from Matthew xviii. 15, 17, “If thy brother shall trespass against thee,” etc., they come to the sage conclusion that “here is not a word said of the _Church’s_ authority, either to judge or to censure. _On the contrary, the WHOLE AUTHORITY IS EXPRESSLY DELIVERED INTO THE HANDS OF THE MINISTER._” So that, if they intended by the provisions of the Discipline to place _any part_ of the authority in _the Church_, they belied their own convictions and stultified their own explanation of the word of God.

“But it may be urged,” they go on to say, “that the offence must _be first mentioned_ to the Church before the offender can be scripturally excluded. ‘Tell it to the Church,’ says our Lord. And so we do. It is merely for the sake of convenience that in large societies we tell it only to a committee, or representation of the society, or do abundantly more—even _make them witnesses of the whole trial_. But if such societies were to desire it, we would tell the whole unto the Church at large. _But still, we must declare from the plain sense of the word of God_ that our Lord invests the _minister WITH THE WHOLE AUTHORITY BOTH OF JUDGMENT AND OF CENSURE_.”—(_Notes on Discipline_, chap. ii, sec. 8 as quoted in Emory’s _History of the Discipline_, pp. 331–288.)

[12] The reader will find it in the volume styled “The Infidel’s Daughter.”

COMPREHENSIVE INDEX TO THE ARGUMENT IN THE FIRST VOLUME OF THEODOSIA; OR, THE TEN NIGHT’S STUDY OF SCRIPTURE BAPTISM.