Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/140

128 was quietly ignored when an irremediable want of unanimity threatened a deadlock in the proceedings against Newton. The course adopted differed from the procedure of Dissenters, only in that the document issued by the majority contained no allusion to the existence of a minority; whereas in the documents of Dissenters a more open course is commonly pursued.

The prosecuting party did not accept the view of Newton and his friends, that the exclusion was tantamount to an excommunication. All that can be said is that if it was not an act of excommunication it was a gratuitous impertinence. Newton had not applied for fellowship, and therefore the church was not under necessity to decide on his case in order to guide itself in an actual emergency. If excommunication was more than the church intended, its decision was merely a totally uncalled-for intimation to Newton that if he did present himself he would be refused. Tregelles was surely justified in saying, “I have no doubt, but that it is supposed that the sentence is to act as an excommunication; but do you expect to find Christian men in general to acquiesce in such an issue from such proceedings? The whole is null and void, both before God and before His saints.”