Secret sins
Rev. Joshua Engelsma provides an explanation of Article 73 of the Church Order concerning secret sins and congregational discipline, drawing from Johannes Jansen's commentary and tracing the article's origins through the Synods of Emden and Dort. The resource emphasizes that church discipline originates within the congregation through brotherly admonition rather than solely through consistory action, and clarifies the distinction between sins that are repented of privately and those that pose danger to the church's spiritual welfare.
From A Brief Explanation of the Church Order by Johannes Jansen Article 73: "Secret sins of which the sinner repents, after being admonished by one person in private or in the presence of two or three witnesses, shall not be laid before the consistory." This article already dates from the Synod of Emden (1571) in Article 27.1 But it was then somewhat broader, and distinguished between two kinds of secret sins: namely, secret sins of which the sinner, after being admonished personally in...
Full article available on sb.rfpa.org