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the same with my the congregation, which consisted at least of ten persons *; and when such a number were made acquainted with the whole affair, and the offender would make no acknowledgment, the offended person would be justified by all men, in treating him for the future as a worthless friend or neighbour, as the Jews used to call such an one, and take no more notice of him than of an heathen nian and a publican. The rule also may be accommodated to any difference between one member of a church and another; between a brother and a brother, who are in the same spiritual relation; and this rule must be ob served in case of a private tresspass only known to them, a secret fault which they are only privy to; and not a public sin, known to the whole church and to the world; for then another method must be taken: and it must be a trespass, a sin, that the offender is guilty of; yet not a sin of infirmity, common to human nature, and which all are encompassed with; a man is not to be made an offender for a word, a small trifling thing; and yet it must not be a very attrocious and public one, which requires more than ad nonition, even excommunica tion at once; such as was the sin of the incestuous person; but a sin of a lesser nature, yet a fault, and which gives just cause of offence; and in such a case the offended brother must give the offending one private reproof, tell him his fault, between themselves alone; and if he can bring him to an acknowledgement of bis fault, and he declares his sorrow for it, then the brother is gained, is restored from the error he has been guilty of; and it is to be buried in oblivion, and no more said of it to any one; but if not, he must take another brother or two with him, and admonish him again; and if he pays no regard to it, as strengthened by the conjunction of the brethren with him, then the direction is, tell the church: but what is meant by it is not easy to say, whether the Jewish sanhedrim or Jewish synagogue; since at that time there was no congregational church in being, unless the twelve disciples may be so called; wherefore this can only at most respect a church in future time, when such a rule should take place; however, so far as it concerns a private admonition, it is clear and manifest, and deserves attention; for which reason only it is produced.

III The next thing to be inquired into is, what concerns the goings-out of the house or church of God, and what may be meant by them. There are but two ways of going out of a church; either by a dismission from it, or by an excommunication out of it. There are, indeed, letters of recommendation, which are wanting in some cases, though the apostle needed them not, 2 Cor. Hi. 1. such as were given to Apollos, Acts xviii. 27. to Phebe, Rom. xvi. 1. 2. and to Marcus, Col. iv. 10. But these do not give membership; only transient communion; the person recommended still remains a member from whence he is recommended; the design of such letters is only to certify, that the person whose name is mentioned in them, is a member in full communion with the church which recommends him, and may be safely admitted to transient Vid. Rhenferd. observ. select. ad loc. Heb. Nov. Test. inter ejus opera, p. 789, &c.

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communion with the church to which he is recommended: but such letters ought not to continue long; for if a person takes up his residence in a place where he is in providence brought, he should send for his dismission, and be received upon it into full communion; a letter of dismission, when approved of, and the person dismissed is received, he is in all respects a member, and then his membership ceases in the church by which he is dismissed, and not before: there are cases in which a man may desire his dismission to another church, as distance of habitation, non-edification, and when a church is become corrupt in doctrine and practice, that he cannot conscientiously abide with them. The other way of going out of a church is excommunication, concerning which it will be necessary to consider various things,

1. What excommunication is. 1. It is not a being reckoned as an heathen man and a publican; nor a delivery of one to Satan, as has been shewn. — 2. Nor does it affect the temporal estate and civil affairs of a man; it does not subject him to fines, imprisonment, or death; it does not interfere with the business of the civil magistrate; nor does it break in upon the natural and civil relations between man and wife, parents and children, masters and servants; not forbid attendance on the external ministry of the word.-3. Nor does it admit of degrees; the Jews had three sorts of excommunication, which proceeded gradually; but there is but one among christians. Some talk indeed of a lesser and a greater excommunication, but without any foundation from the word of God. Some think a suspension from the Lord's table is in some cases pecessary; when a case is dubious, and there is not time thoroughly to inquire into it, and yet offence and scandal arises upon it: a person, indeed, may be desired to abstain from the Lord's table, and a man that seeks the peace of the church, will consent to it; but he cannot be obliged to abstain; if he is obstinate and refractory, there is no other way but to expel him; for a man is either in eommunion with a church or he is not; there is no middle state; to withdraw from a disorderly person, or to withdraw and separate him from communion, are the same thing. 4. Excommunication is no other than a removal of a man from the communion of the church, and from all privileges dependent upon it; it is a disfranchizing him from all the immunities of a fellow-citizen with the saints, and taking from him a place and a name in the house of God; for a church can take no more from him than what it first him. gave 5. This act is expressed by various phrases; as by avoiding familiar conyersation with such; by not keeping company with them; and by not eating with them at the Lord's table; by purging out from them the old leaven; and by putting away the wicked from among them; by withdrawing from disorderly persons, and cutting them off from fellowship with them,

11. Who they are that are to be excommunicated. 1. Such who are disturbers of the church's peace, who cause divisions and offences, who are litigious and quarrelsome, 1 Cor. xi, 16. Such who are troublers of God's Israel,

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ought to be cut off from his people, Gal. v. 12. 2. Who do not keep their places in the church, do not attend when the church assembles together for religious worship, but forsake the assembling of themselves together, and in a sense forsake the church; whose places are empty, as David's was at suppertime, and who do in a sort cut off themselves from the communion of the church, Jude verse 19.3. All such who walk disorderly, as the above persons do; are irregular in their lives and conversations, guilty of immoralities, though it may he thought of a lesser kind, which they continue and indulge themselves in; as sloth and idleness, not working at all, busy-bodies, going from house to house, doing mischief, and living upon others; from such the apostle commands us to withdraw ourselves, 2 Thess. iii. 6-14.4. All such who commit atrocious crimes, unrepented of, and continued in; as fornicators, covetous, idolaters, railers, drunkards, extortioners, &e. with such we are bid not to eat, especially at the Lord's table; for such ought to have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, that is, in the church of God, 1 Cor. v. 11. Eph. v. 5.-5. All erroneous and heretical persons, who hold and propagate doctrines contrary to what has been learnt from the word of God, and in the churches of Christ: such are to be avoided and declined from, Rom. xvi. 17. all such who bring in damnable heresies, as the apostle calls them; denying the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, the Deity of Christ, &c. 2 Pet. ii. 1. who bring not with them, but oppose the doctrine of Christ, concerning his person and grace: these, as they are not to have a place in the private houses of the saints, ought to have none in the church of God; which is commended for not bearing them that are evil, either unsound in principle, or immoral in life. 111. By whom excommunication is to be performed.

1. Not by a member himself; no man has a right to cut off himself; such a man is a fela de se; as a man cannot come into a church without the consent of it, so neither can he go out of it, without its consent; for a man to depart of himself, is not standing fast in one spirit, but is a cowardly running away from a church; and to go without giving a reason, without asking leave, or desiring a dismission, to say the least of it, is a rude and unmannerly way of departure; and such churches who receive such persons, do not as they would be done by yea, such men are covenant-breakers with a church, which is a great evil, and breakers up of churches, as much as in them lies; for what one member may do, others may; yea, if a member may leave a church at pleasure, a pastor may do the same in a word, notwithstanding such departure, such persons may proceeded against by direct excommunication; or, which amounts to much the same, should be declared by a vote of the church, non-members, and no longer under its watch and care; which is by some called indirect excommunication.

2. Nor is it to be performed by any single person of himself, whether an ordinary or an extraordinary minister it never was done by an apostle, an evangelist, or any other one man; for it is a punishment inflicted by many.. 3. Nor is it to be done by the elders of a church separately; much less by the elders of

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other churches; but by the elders of churches, with the consent of the members of them; for they have a right to do this, previous to their having elders, and when they have none, as to receive members, so to expel them; the power of it originally lies in the church; the authority of executing it lies in the elders with the consent and by the order of the church; as the directions to the churches concerning this matter testify.

IV. What are the ends of excommunication.

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1. The glory of God, which is the ultimate end of it; for as his name is dishonoured by the evil practices or principles of church-members, so this is the most open and most effectual way of removing that dishonour that is brought upon it; this ought to be always the chief aim and the sincere view in the administration of it; though sometimes this is only pretence, and under the cover of it, churches gratify sinful passions and resentments; as the Jews of old, in a similar case, Isai. lxvi. 5. 2. Another end is to purge the church, and preserve it from infection; a little leaven leavens the whole lump, and therefore the old leaven must be purged out, that a church may become a new lump; evil communications corrupt good manners, and therefore evil men must be put away from among the saints, 1 Cor. v. 7, 13. lepers were to be put out of the camp, that they might not infect others; and erroneous persons, whose words do eat as a canker, must be removed from the communion of churches, 3. A church of Christ is like a garden, or vineyard, which, if not taken care of, and this ordinance of excommunication not made use of will be like the vineyard of the slothful, over-run with thorns and nettles and other weeds; but by means of this it is cleared of the weeds of immoralities, and the bitter roots of false doctrines, are plucked up and eradicated, and withered branches are gathered and cast out. 4. The good of persons excommunicated is another end, and is sometimes effected by it, God blessing his own institution when rightly performed, which is for edification, and not destruction; for the saving of the souls of men; and who are hereby brought to shame and repentance for their sins, and an acknowledgment of them; when they are to be received again with all love and tenderness, and to be comforted, that they might not be swallowed up with over-much sorrow.

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BOOK

ок III.

OF THE PUBLIC ORDINANCES OF DIVINE WORSHIP.

OF BAPTISM.

As the first Covenant, or Testament, had ordinances of divine service, which are shaken, removed, and abolished; so the New-Testament, or gospel-dispensation, has ordinances of divine worship, which cannot be shaken, but will remain until the second coming of Christ: these, are few, and easy to be observed, and of a very expressive signification. Among which, Baptisin must be reckoned one, and is proper to be treated of in the first place; for though it is not a church-ordinance, it is an ordinance of God, and a part and branch of public worship. When I say it is not a church-ordinance, I mean it is not an ordinance administered in the church, but out of it, and in order to admission into it, and communion with it; it is preparatory to it, and a qualification for it; it does not make a person a member of a church, or admit him into a visible church; persons must first be baptized, and then added to the church, as the three thousand converts were; a church has nothing to do with the baptism of any, but to be satisfied they are baptized before they are admitted into communion with it. Admission to baptism lies solely in the breast of the administrator, who is the only judge of qualifications for it, and has the sole power of receiving to it, and of rejecting from it; if not satisfied, he may reject a person thought fit by a church, and admit a person to baptism not thought fit by a church; but a disagreement is not desirable nor adviseable: the orderly, regular, scriptural rule of proceeding seems to be this: a person inclined to submit to baptism, and to join in communion with a church, should first apply to an administrator; and, upon giving him satisfaction, be baptized by him; and then should propose to the church for communion; when he would be able to answer all proper questions: if asked, to give a reason of the hope that is in him, he is ready to do it; if a testimony of his life and conversation is required, if none present can give it, he can direct where it is to be had; and if a question is put to him, whether he is a baptized person or no, he can answer in the affirmative, and give proof of it, and so the way is clear for his admission into church-fellowship. So Saul, when converted, was immediately baptized by Ananias, without any previous knowledge and consent of the church; and it was many days after this that he proposed to join himself to the discioles, and

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