SO A. CHRISTIAN CHURCH. their special affairs : He has a right to attend on such meetings for considering of the circumstances and state of the church, for regulating things that are amiss, for altering any of their customs, for distributing monies to the poor, for chusing a pastor or other officers, for admitting members, and for exercising thediscipline of the church, &c. He acquires also a right in joint-partner- ship to the temporal possessions of the society, suppose it be a meeting-house for public worship, vessels of plate for church communion, or anyhouses, or temporal goods 'or donatives, which may belong to (init. particular society. Now though the laws of Christ require us to receive every visible christian, who desires it, to communion in public worship, and in special ordinances of the gospel, because he is fit for it, yet those laws do not require that every such person should be admitted to the peculiar councils and affairs of any particular so- ciety, because perhaps he is really unfit for it. Perhaps they know, or have abundant reason to believe, that his different opinions, or his unhappy temper, or his peculiar circumstances, would render him a very troublesome member of it, that he would raise parties in the choice of officers, or in admission of members, or in distributing to the poor, or in the regulation of other church affairs ; and therefore they allow him only occasional communion with them, which is all that seems to be his duty with regard to that particular church, and which is all the ditty which the laws of reason, or of religion, seem to demand of them to- ward him. Besides, let it be further considered, that whatsoever in- stances of christian fellowship in sacred things the laws of Christ may demand for such a person, yet it is certain the laws of Christ do not demand for him any share in the temporal possessions of that religious society, nor in the distribution of their temporal things, unless it be perhaps to relieve him in some degree, if he be necessitous. Therefore the laws of Christ do not require that society to receive such a person to complete communion and membership, to introduce him into their councils and affairs, or to vest him in any of their temporal possessions, since it is evident he will become a very troublesome member, and endanger, if not destroy, the edification and peace of the particular society or church. Let all things be done to edification ; 1 Cor. xiv. 26. Follow those things which makefor peace, and thingswhereby one may edifyanother; Rom. xiv. 19. QUEST. VII.What Knowledge is necessary for Christian Communion ? SECT. I. Under the third question I have shewn that the knowledge necessary to communion, includes in it both a
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