[1]
2. The discontent of the Presbyterians arose from a very different
source. They complained that the parliament sacrilegiously usurped that
jurisdiction which Christ had vested exclusively in his church. The
assembly contended, that "the keys of the kingdom of heaven were committed
to the officers of the church, by virtue whereof, they have power
respectively to retain and remit sins, to shut the kingdom of heaven
against the impenitent by censures, and to open it to the penitent by
absolution." These claims of the divines were zealously supported by their
brethren in parliament, and as fiercely opposed by all who were not of
their communion. The divines claimed for the presbyteries the right of
inquiring into the private lives of individuals, and of suspending the
unworthy[b]
[Footnote 1: Baillie, i. 408, 420, 431; ii. 11, 33, 37, 42, 57, 63, 66,
71.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Sept. 13.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. March 5.]
from the sacrament of the Lord's supper; but the parliament refused the
first, and confined the second to cases of public scandal. _They_ arrogated
to themselves the power of judging what offences should be deemed
scandalous; the parliament defined the particular offences, and appointed
civil commissioners in each province, to whom the presbyteries should refer
every case not previously enumerated.
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