pline in that Church alfo; yea a Command relating to it, enjoined in the Name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which therefore being grounded upon his Authority, all Chriftians fhall be obliged to regard and fulfil. It is in 2 The 3. 6. Now we command you, Brethren, that ye withdraw your felves from every Brother that walketh diforderly, and not after the Tradition which he received of us. And ver. 14. If any Man obey not our Word by this Epistle, note that Man, and have no company with bim, that he may be ashamed. be afhamed. What is it that they fhould withdraw themselves from the diforderly; but the fame with that which he giveth in charge in his Epiftle to the Romans, cap. 16. 17. that they fhould mark them which cause divifions and offences, contrary to the Doctrine which they bad learned; and avoid them? Which by the way, I obferve to be an Inftance of fome Order in that Church of Rome, also to the like purpose. Now withdrawing from, avoiding and not keeping company with, feem all one and the fame, importing the not having any Fellowship or Society with fuch; whom if they were to avoid, fo as not to have any Civil Converfation with them, much more fo as not to have communion with them in Holy Things. A like Order the Apofle giveth, i Cor. 5.11.

(whereof

(whereof fome notice has been taken already) not to keep company, if any Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator, or Covetous, or an Idolater, or a Railer, or a Drunkard, or an Extortioner, with fuch an one, no not to eat. This This may be good Counsel only if the Apoftle be thought to direct himself to Particular Christians only; but as he writes unto the Church of the Thellalonians, or to any other Church in general Terms to withdraw from, avoid and not company with fuch Perfons, it is to be fuppofed that Church should understand it felf obliged to note, mark, and separate fuch from the Society and Communion of Christians, and that Private Chriftians fhould apprehend it their concern, to take notice of fuch as are thus condemned by the Church, to avoid them, and not to have any familiarity with them, not fo much as to eat with them; to demonstrate how far they would be from communicating with them in the Offices of Chriftianity. Otherwise we must fuppofe S. Paul to have used a very weak Argument to the Corinthians, when he gives this for a Reason why they were to blame, for that they had not put away from among them the Incestuous Perfon, because he had wrote unto them in an Epistle, not to company with Fornicators, i Cor. 5. 9. were it not that they

might easily thence have understood, that if they were not to hold Civil Converse and Society with fuch, much less should they have fuffered fuch to have continued in Communion with the Church; from which, they well knew, they had a Power from Chrift to exclude them and put them away. And otherwise, alfo, how fhould this be good Reasoning, in the Apostle, when he faith he did not mean to require them to forbear the company of the Gentiles in fuch cafe; but that they should not keep company with a Brother being a Fornicator, &c. For that neither he nor they had to do to judge those that are without, whom they must therefore leave to God's Judgment; but they had Power to judge those that were of the Church or within, and therefore having this Power, they could, not but apprehend, that if he forbid them to company with fuch, it was their duty as a Church to put away from among themfelves every fuch wicked Perfon; and with thofe that fhould be fo put away, no Christian might keep company fo much as to eat. Let it be obferved here alfo; that this Interpretation is not mine; but what the practice of the whole Church inforceth, wherein the Company of Perfons Excommunicate was ever fhunned and avoided, by faithful Christians, until fuch

time as they were admitted to Penance, in order to their being reconciled and received into the Church.

Moreover, the Order taken for the excluding of Hereticks out of the Church, as that of. S. Paul, Gal. 1. 9. If any Man preach any other Gospel than that ye have received, let him be Anathema; that is, as the Antients have interpreted it, Let him be feparated, fet afide, fhut out of the Church, to expect his Judgment at the coming of Chrift: And Tit. 3. 9. A Man that is an Heretick after the first and fecond admonition reject with others of like nature as it importeth the Power of the Keys, to exclude from the Church fuch as depart from the Truth; therein is it an Evidence of that Authority which bringeth to Effect the Discipline thereof, by excluding thofe that will not be otherwife perfwaded, but to hold the Truth in unrighteousness. The Power that excludeth is the fame, how different foever the Causes of exclufion may be, and the Instances in every cafe, as they are alike Evidences of the Church's Power, fhall help to juftifie the ufe of fuch a Power,

in every cafe that the Reafon of Chriftianity will warrant. Indeed if I might be allowed to offer at a conjecture, touching the Reafon of S. Paul's directing this

Power

Power of the Church to be imployed against Hereticks that deny fome Truth or other of Christianity; I fhould be apt to fay, that probably 'twas because all Chriftian Truth was deposited with the Church to be a Foundation for its being built up, and edified in Righteousness; fo that the oppofing of the Truth is a weakning of the Foundation of Godlinéfs, and either hinders the Practice thereof, or takes from the obligations that all are under to that Practice; and the Errors that Hereticks fubstitute in the room of Christian Truth, are wicked Principles, that will produce wicked practices; which practices, though fome that hold Heretical Errors may dif own, or may not be guilty of (the Truth, which they hold probably prevailing over the Poifon of their Errors, that the Infection does not fo corrupt their Manners as otherwise it would) yet in as much as fuch Errors tend to wickednefs, or give advantage to Sinners to do wickedly, this fhall be Reafon fufficient for the Church to imploy its Authority against such Hereticks, to cut off thereby the Sourse of Wickedness, and to prevent Sinners of any advantage they may think to make of fuch Herefies, to proceed in their Evil Works. But this is conjecture only, that Herefie and Hereticks were detefted fo as

that