Quest. LXIII. What power have the people in church censures and excommunication?

Answ. This is here adjoined, because it requireth but little more than the foregoing answer. 1. As it is the pastor’s office to judge who is to be received, so also to judge who is to be excluded.

2. But the execution of his sentence belongeth to the people as well as to himself. It is they that either hold communion with the person, or avoid him.

3. Therefore though ordinarily they must acquiesce in the pastor’s judgment, yet if he grossly offend against the law of God, and would bring them, e. g. to communion with heretics and openly impious, and excommunicate the orthodox and godly, they may seek their remedy as before.

1 Cor. v. 3, 6, 11; 2 John; Tit. iii. 10.