Queft. I. Queft. II. Queft. III, Queft, IV. SECTION VI. How far this Government doth extend in Matters Spiritual and purely Confcientious. T HUS far I have confidered the Order and Government of the Church, as it refpects outward Things; and its Authority in condemning or removing fuch Things, which in themselves are evil, as being those, which none will readily juftify: The Neceffity of which Things is fuch, that few but will acknowledge the Care and Order in these Cafes to be commendable and expedient. Now I come to confider the Things of another Kind, which either verily are, or are fuppofed to be Matters of Confcience, or at leaft, wherein People may lay Claim to Confcience in the acting or forbearing of them. In which the great Question is, How far in fuch Cafes the Church may give pofitive Orders, or Rules? How far her Authority reacheth, or may be fuppofed to be binding, and ought to be fubmitted to? For the better clearing and Examination of which, it will be fit to confider, First, Whether the Church of Chrift have Power in any Cafes, that are Matters of Conscience, to give pofitive Sentence and Decision, which may be obligatory upon Believers ? Secondly, If fo, in what Cafes and Respects fhe may fo do? Thirdly, Wherein confifteth the Freedom and Liberty of Confcience, which may be exercised by the Members of the true Church diverfly, without judging one another ? And lastly, In whom the Power decifive is in Cafe of Controverfy, or Contention in fuch Matters? Which will alfo lead us to observe the vast Difference Difference betwixt us and the Papifts, and others in this Particular. As to the first, Whether the Church of Chrift Question I, have Power in any Cafes, that are Matters of Confcience, to give a pofitive Sentence and Decifion, which may be obligatory upon Believers. Reafon, I answer affirmatively, the hath; and fhall prove Answer. it from divers Inftances, both from Scripture and Reason. For firft, all Principles and Articles of Articles of Faith, which are held doctrinally, are in refpect to Matters of Faith are those that believe them Matters of Confcience. We Confcience know, the Papifts do out of Confcience (such as are zealous among them) adore, worship, and pray to Angels, Saints, and Images, yea, and to the Eucharift, as judging it to be really Chrift Jefus; and fo do others place Confcience in Things that are abfolutely wrong: Now I fay, we being gathered 1. Proof together into the Belief of certain Principles and from right Doctrines, without any Constraint or worldly Respect, but by the meer Force of Truth upon our Understanding, and its Power and Influence upon our Hearts; thefe Principles and Doctrines, and the Practices neceffarily depending upon them, are, as it were, the Terms, that have drawn us together, and the Bond, by which we became centered into one Body and Fellowship, and distinguished from others. Now if any one or more fo engaged with us fhould arife to teach any other Doctrine or Doc-trines, contrary to thefe, which were Ground of our being one who can deny, but the Body hath Power in fuch a Cafe to declare, this is not according to the Truth we profefs; and therefore we pronounce fuch H and * Yet this is not fo the Bond, but that we have alfo a more inward and invisible, to wit, the Life of Righteousness, whereby we alfo have Unity with the upright Seed in all, even in those whofe Underftandings are not yet fo enlightened. But thefe who are once enlightened, this is as an outward Bond; and if they fuffer themfelves to be darkened through Difobedience, which as it does in the outward Bond, foit doth in the inward. liever of and fuch Doctrines to be wrong, with which we cannot have Unity, nor yet any more fpiritual Fellowship with those that hold them? And fo fuch cut themfelves off from being Members by diffolving the very Bond, by which they were linked to the Body. Now this cannot be accounted Tyranny and Oppreffion, no more than in a civil Society, if one of the Society fhall contradict one or more of the fundamental Articles, upon which the Society was contracted, it cannot be reckon❜d a Breach or Iniquity in the whole Society to declare, that fuch Contradictors have done wrong, and forfeited their Right in that Society; in cafe by the original Conftitution the Nature of the Contradiction implies fuch a Forfeiture, as ufually it is; and will no doubt hold in religious Matters. As The Dibe if a Body be gathered into one Fellowship by the she Princi Belief of certain Principles, he that comes to beples of a lieve otherways, naturally fcattereth himfelf; for Fellowship excludes that the Caufe, that gathered him, is taken away : And so those that abide conftant, in declaring the Thing to be fo as it is, and in looking upon him, and witneffing of him to others, if need be, to be fuch, as he has made himself, do him no Injury. I fhall make the Suppofition in the general, and let every People make the Application to themselves, abstracting from us; and then let Confcience and Reason in every impartial Reader declare, whether or not it doth not hold Suppose a People really gathered unto the Belief of the true and certain Principles of the Gospel, if any of these People shall arife and contradict any of thofe fundamental Truths, whether have not fuch as ftand, good Right to caft fuch a one out from among them, and to pronounce pofitively, this is contrary to the Truth we profess and own; and therefore ought to be rejected, and not received, nor yet he that afferts it, as one of us? And is not this Obligatory upon all the Members, feeing all are concerned in the like Care, as to themselves, to hold the Right, and fhut out the himself therefrom and feat ters. } Wrong? Wrong ture. Gal. i. 8. But though we, or an Angel from Hea- 2 Proof from Scrip ven, preach any other Gofpel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accurfed. As we faid before, fo fay I now again, If any Man preach any other Gospel unto you, than that ye have received, let bim be accursed. 1 Tim. i. 19, 20. Holding Faith and a good ConScience, which fome having put away, concerning Faith, bave made Shipwrack, of whom is Hymæneus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blafpheme. 2 John x. If there come any unto you, and bring not this Doctrine, receive him not into your Houfe, neither bid him rejoice. For fo the Greek hath it. Thefe Scriptures are fo plain and clear in themselves as to this Purpose, that they need no great Expofition to the unbyaffed and unprejudicate Reader. Forefeeing it is fo, that in the true Church there may Men arife, and fpeak perverfe Things contrary to the Doctrine and Gospel already received: What is to be the Place of thofe, that hold the pure and ancient Truth? Muft they look upon these perverse Men ftill, as their Brethren? Muft they cherish. them as Fellow-members, or muft they judge, condemn, and deny them? We must not think, the Apostle wanted Charity, who will have them accurfed; and that gave Hymæneus and Alexander over to Hymaneus Satan, after that they had departed from the true ander inFaith, that they might learn not to blafpheme. In flanced. fhort, if we muft, as our Oppofers, herein acknowledge, preferve and keep thofe, that are come to own the Truth, by the fame Means they were gathered and brought into it, we must not ceafe to be plain with them, and tell them, when they are wrong; and by found Doctrine, both exhort and H 2 con and Alex convince Gainfayers. If the Apoftles of Christ of Old, and the Preachers of the everlasting Gospel in this Day, had told all People, however wrong they found them in their Faith and Principles, Our ChaA wrong rity and Love is fuch, we dare not judge you, nor separate from you; but let us all live in Love together, and every one enjoy his own Opinion,, and all cherish in will be well: How fhould the Nations have been? Error,is Or what Way can they be brought to Truth_and Charity and falfe Love to Righteousness? Would not the Devil love this Doctrine well, by which Darkness and Ignorance, Error and Confufion, might ftill continue in the Earth unreproved, and uncondemned? If it was needful then for the Apostles of Chrift in the Days of Old to reprove, without fparing to tell the High Priefts and great Profeffors among the Jews, That they were tubborn and ftiff-necked, and always refifted the Holy Ghoft, without being guilty of Imposition and Oppreffion, or Want of true Love and Charity; and alfo for those Meffengers the Lord raised up in this Day, to reprove, and cry out against the Hireling Priefts, and to tell the World openly, both Profef fors and Prophane, That they were in Darkness and Ignorance, out of the Truth, Strangers and Aliens from the Common-wealth of Ifrael; if God has gathered a People by this Means into the Belief of one and the fame Truth, muft not they, if they turn and depart from it, be admonished, reproved, and condemned, yea, rather than those that are not yet come to the Truth, because they crucify afresh unto themselves the Lord of Glory, and put him to open Shame? It feems, the Apostle judged it very needful, they fhould be fo dealt with, Tit. i. 10. when he fays, There are many unruly and vain Talkers, and Deceivers, especially they of the Circumcifion, whofe Mouths must be stopped, &c. Were fuch a Principle to be received or believed, that in the Church of Chrift no Man fhould be separated from, no Man condemned or excluded the Fellowship and Com |