From an observation hereof, and a desire to vindicate as well Christian religion from such a scandalous abuse as mankind from bondage to such a monstrous fiction as is the present power and ex- ercise of it, some have fallen into another extreme, denying that there is any such thing as excommunication appointed or approved by the gospel. But this neither is nor ever will be a way to reduce religion, nor any thing in it, unto its primitive order and purity To
] 54< TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
deny the being of any thing because it hath been abused, when there could have been no abuse of it but upon a supposition of its being, is not a rational way to reprove and convince that abuse. And when those who have corrupted this institution find the insufficiency of the arguments produced to prove that there never was any such institution, it makes them secure in the practice of their own abuses of it ; for they imagine that there is nothing incumbent on them, to justify their present possession and exercise of the power of excom- munication, but that excommunication itself is appointed in the church by Christ: whereas the true consideration of this appointment is the only means to divest them of their power and practice ; for the most effectual course to discharge and disprove all corruptions in the agenda or practicals of religion, as the sacraments, public worship, rule, and the like, is to propose and declare the things themselves in their original simplicity and purity, as appointed by Christ and re- corded in the Scriptures. A real view of them in such a proposal will divest the minds of men, not corrupted and hardened by preju- dice and interest, of those erroneous conceptions of them that, from some kind of tradition, they have been prepossessed withal; and this I shall now attempt in this particular of excommunication.
There hath been great inquiry about the nature and exercise of this ordinance under the old testament, with the account given of it by the later Jews; for the right and power of it in general be- longs unto a church as such, — every church, and not to that which is purely evangelical only. This I shall not inquire into; it hath been sifted to the bran already, and intermixed with many rabbinical conjectures and mistakes. In general, there is nothing more certain than that there was a double removal of persons by church- authority from the communion of the whole congregation in divine worship, — the one for a season, the other for ever; whereof I have given in- stances elsewhere. But I intend only the consideration of what belongs unto churches under the new testament. And to this end we may observe, —
1. That all lawful societies, constituted such by voluntary con- federation, according unto peculiar laws and rules of their own choice, unto especial duties and ends, have a right and power, by the light of nature, to receive into their society those that are willing and meet, engaging themselves to observe the rules, laws, and ends of the society, and to expel them out of it who wilfully deviate from those rules. This is the life and form of every lawful society or com- munity of men in the world, without which they can neither coalesce nor subsist. But it is required hereunto, —
(1.) That those who so enter into such a society have right or 'power so to do. And many things are required unto this end; as, — [].] That those who enter into such a society be " sui juris," have a
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lawful rigid to dispose of themselves as unto all the duties and ends of such a society. Hence children, servants, subjects, have no power in themselves to enter into such societies without the interposition of and obligation from a power superior unto that of parents, masters, or princes, — namely, that of God himself. [2.] That the rules, laws, and ends of the society be lawful, good, and useful, unto themselves and others; for there may be a confederation in and for evil, which is a combination that gives no right nor power over one another, or towards others that enter into it. [3.] That it contains nothing that is 2)rejudicial unto others, in things divine or human. [4] Nor obliges unto the omission or neglect of any duty that men, by virtue of any relations, natural, moral, or political, do owe unto others- [5.] Nor is hurtful unto themselves, in their lives, liberties, names, reputation, usefulness in the world, or any thing else, unto whose pi'eservation they are obliged by the law of nature. [6.] Nor are nor can be such persons obliged to forsake the conduct of themselves, in things divine and human, by the light of their own consciences, by an engagement of blind obedience unto others; which would ren- der every society unlawful by the law of God and light of nature. [7.] Least of all have any persons right or power to oblige them- selves in such societies unto things evil, sinful, superstitious, or idolatrous.
These things are plain and evident in themselves, and every way sufficient. to divest all the religious societies and fraternities that are erected in the church of Rome of all that right and power which belong unto lawful societies, constituted by voluntary confederation. And if any thing inconsistent with these principles of natural light be pretended in churches, it divests them of all power, as to the exer- cise of it, by virtue of any compact or confederation whatsoever.