Dabney on "judicial prosecution" of non-communicant members

[Peairtach]

What does Dabney mean by "judicial prosecution" of flagrantly sinning baptised - but non-communicant members - in his Systematic Theology on pp. 794-798? What is the nature of this "judicial prosecution" ?

If someone is placed in the visible church at birth and solemnly admitted by baptism, they are surely - to this extent at least- in the church and covenant of grace for life, illustrated in that even if they live a very flagrantly sinful life, if they trust in the Lord by His grace, and return to the church, they will not be rebaptised.

So presumably Dabney isn't talking about nullifying their baptism?

 

[Wayne]

That was an issue which came up in the latter half of the 19th-century in the Southern Presbyterian Church.

Most notably, there was this, which appeared in The Southern Presbyterian Review:--

Miller, Rev. Arnold W., The Relation of Baptized Children to the Discipline of the Church, 11.1 (April 1858) 1-42 and 18.1 (July 1867) 46-109.
(see pp. 1286ff. at Southern Presbyterian review : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive )

Besides that article and Dabney's mention of the topic, I don't see it played out in the journals. Probably was aired on the pages of one or more of the many Presbyterian newspapers of that day, but those resources are a lot tougher to dig out. The PCA Historical Center has collections of some of those papers, but time is tight right now. Might be a while before I could look.

Also, we've had prior discussion on the PB, here: http://www.puritanboard.com/f122/church-discipline-children-51055/

 

[Peairtach]

Thanks for that, Wayne.

I'll get round to reading Miller's article shortly, DV.

 

[Peairtach]

(see pp. 1286ff. at Southern Presbyterian review : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive )

Thanks for that Wayne, but the article on pp 1286ff doesn't directly deal with the subject, unless I'm missing something.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

This may help:

http://dabneyarchive.com/Discussions V2/Revised Book Of Discipline 1.pdf