( 77 ) felves,do' ferve only to involve and darken theTruth. It isplain in the place; (i) That therewas aChurch-State forChrittians, then defigned byChrift, which afterwards he would inflituteand fettle. (2.) That all true Difciples were to join and unite them- felves in fomefuchChurch,as might be helpful unto their Love, Order,Peaceand Edification. (3) That among the members of thefe Churches, Offences would,or might arife, which in them- felves tend unto perniciousEvents. (4) That if thefe Offences could not be cured and taken away , , fo as that Love without Diffimulation might be continued among all the Members of theChurches,an Account of themat laft was to begiven unto that Church or Societywhereunto the Parties concerned do belong as Members of it. (5) That this Church fhould hear, determine and, give Judgment with advice in the cafes, fo brought unto it, for the taking away and removal of all Offences. (6) That this Determination of the Church is to be refted in, on the Penal- tyof a Deprivation of all the Priviledges of the Church. (7) That thefe things are the Inftitution and Appointment of Chrift himfelf, whofe Authority in them all, is to be fubmitted unto, and which alone can call one that is a ProfeffedChriflian into the conditionofan Heathen or a Publican. Thefe things in the Notion and Pra&iceof them, areplain eafy, and expofed to the Underflanding of the meaneft of the Difciples ofChrift ; as it is meet, that allthings fhould be,where- in their daily Pradtice is concerned. But it is not eafily to be ex- prefied,into what horrible Perplexities andConfufions they have been wrefted in the Church of Rome, nor how thofe who depart from the plain obvious fenfe of the words, and lovc not the Pra&ice they dire& unto, do lead themfelves and others into ways and paths that have neither ufe, nor end. From thecorrupt abufe of the holy Inftitution of our Lotd Jefus Chrift herein, tended, fomany Powers, Faculties, Courts, Jurifdi&ions, legal ProcefFes, with Litigious, Vexatious, oppr; flîve Courfes ofA?i- ons and Trials, whofe very names are uncouth, horrid, foreign unto Religion, and unintelligible without Cunning in a t ial
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=