directions are to be observed in the matter of excommunication.

1. No excommunication is to be allowed in cases dubious and disputable, wherein right and wrong are not easily determinable unto all unprejudiced persons, that know the will of God in such things. Nor is it to be admitted when the matter of fact stands in need of testimony, and is not proved by two witnesses at the least.

2. All prejudices, all partiality, all provocations, all haste and precipitation, are most carefully to be avoided in this administration; for the judgment is the Lord's. Wherefore,

3. We are continually, in all things that tend unto this sentence, and eminently in the sentence itself, to charge our consciences with the mind of Christ, and what he would do himself in the case; considering his love, grace, mercy, and patience; with instances of his condescension which he gave us in this world.

4. There is also required of us herein, a constant remembrance that we also are in the flesh, and liable to temptation, which may restrain and keep in awe that forwardness and confidence which some are apt to manifest in such cases. In all these things, a watchful eye is to be kept over the methods of Satan; who by all means seeks to pervert this ordinance unto the destruction of men, which is appointed for their edification; and too often prevails in that design. And if by the negligence of a church in the management and pursuit of this ordinance, he gets advantage to pervert it unto the ruin of any, it is the fault of that church, in that they have not been careful of the honour of Christ therein. Wherefore,

1. As excommunication by a cursed noise and clamour with bell, book, and candle (such as we have instances of in some papal councils), is an horrible antichristian abomination. So,

2. It is an undue representation of Christ and his authority, for persons openly guilty of profaneness in sinning, to excommunicate them who are blameless in all Christian obedience.

3. All excommunication is evangelically null where there

is wanting an evangelical frame of spirit in those by whom it is administered; and there is present an anti-evangelical order in its administration.

4. It is sufficiently evident, that after all the contests and disputes about this excommunication that have been in the world, the noise that it hath made, the horrible abuses that it hath been put unto, the wresting of all church-order and rule to give countenance unto a corrupt administration of it, with the needless oppositions that have been made against its institution; there is nothing in it, nothing belongs unto it, nothing required unto its administration, wherein men's outward interests are at all concerned, and which the smallest number of sincere Christians in any church-society, may not perform and discharge unto the glory of Christ, and their own edification.

It is the mystery of iniquity that hath traversed these things into such a state and posture, as is unintelligible unto spiritual wisdom, unpracticable in the obedience of faith, and ruinous unto all evangelical order and discipline.

CHAP. XI.

Of the communion of churches.

CHURCHES SO appointed, and established in order as hath been declared, ought to hold communion among themselves, or with each other, as unto all the ends of their institution and order: for these are the same in all. Yea, the general end of them is in order of nature considered antecedently unto their institution in particular. This end is the edification of the body of Christ in general, or the church catholic. The promotion hereof is committed jointly and severally unto all particular churches. Wherefore, with respect hereunto, they are obliged unto mutual communion among themselves, which is their consent, endeavour, and conjunction in and for the promotion of the edification of the catholic church, and therein their own, as they are parts and members of it.

This communion is incumbent on every church, with respect unto all other churches of Christ in the world equally.

And the duties and acts of it in all of them, are of the same kind and nature. For there is no such disparity between them, or subordination among them, as should make a difference between the acts of their mutual communion; so as that the acts of some should be acts of authority, and those of others acts of obedience or subjection. Wherever there is a church, whether it be at Rome or Egubium, in a city or a village, the communion of them all is mutual, the acts of it of the same kind; however one church may have more advantages to be useful and helpful therein than another. And the abuse of those advantages was that which wrought effectually in the beginning of that disorder, which at length destroyed the catholic church, with all church communion whatever. For some churches, especially that of Rome, having many advantages, in gifts, abilities, numbers, and reputation above many, above most churches for usefulness in their mutual communion; the guides of it insensibly turned and perverted the addresses made unto them, the advices and assistances desired of them in way of communion, or their pretences of such addresses and desires, into a usurpation, first of a primacy of honour, then of order, then of supremacy and jurisdiction, unto the utter overthrow of all churchorder and communion, and at length of the whole nature of the catholic church, as stated and subsisting in particular churches, as we shall see.

All churches, on their first institution, quickly found themselves indigent and wanting, though not as unto their being, power, and order; yet as unto their well-being, with their preservation in truth and order, upon extraordinary occurrences, as also with respect unto their usefulness and serviceableness, unto the general end of furthering the edification of the church catholic. The care hereof, and the making provision for this defect, was committed by our Lord Jesus Christ unto the apostles during their lives, which Paul calls ἡ μέριμνα πασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν ; 2 Cor. xi. 28. The care of all the churches.' For what was only a pressing care and burden unto them, was afterward contended for by others, as a matter of dignity and power; the pretence of it, in one especially, being turned into a cursed domination, under the style and title of 'Servus servorum Dei.'

But if a thousand pretences should be made of supplying

churches' defects, after the decease of the apostles, by any other order, way, or means, besides this of the equal communion of churches among themselves, they will be all found destitute of any countenance from the Scripture, primitive antiquity, the nature, use, and end of churches, yea, of Christian religion itself. Yet the pretence hereof is the sole foundation of all that disposal of churches into several sto ries of subordination, with an authority and jurisdiction over one another, which now prevails in the world. But there is no place for such imaginations, until it be proved, either that our Lord Jesus Christ hath not appointed the mutual communion of churches among themselves by their own consent; or that it is not sufficient for the preservation of the union, and furtherance of the edification, of the church catholic, whereunto it is designed.

Wherefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, in his infinite wisdom, hath constituted his churches in such a state and order, as wherein none of them are able of themselves, always and in all instances, to attain all the ends for which they are appointed, with respect unto the edification of the church catholic. And he did it for this end, that whereas the whole catholic church is animated by one spirit, which is the bond of union between all particular churches (as we shall see), every one of them may act the gifts and graces of it unto the preservation and edification of the whole.

Herein then, we acknowledge, lieth the great difference which we have with others about the state of the church of Christ in this world; we do believe that the mutual communion of particular churches amongst themselves, in an equality of power and order, though not of gifts and usefulness, is the only way appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ after the death of the apostles, for the attaining the general end of all particular churches, which is the edification of the church catholic, in faith, love, and peace. Other ways and means have been found out in the world for this end, which we must speak unto immediately. Wherefore, it behoveth us to use some diligence in the consideration of the causes, nature, and use of this communion of churches.

But it must be moreover premised, that whereas this communion of churches is radically and essentially the same among all churches in the world, yet, as unto the ordinary

actual exercise of the duties of it, it is confined and limited by divine providence unto such churches, as the natural means of the discharge of such duties may extend unto; that is, unto those which are planted within such lines of communication, such precincts or boundaries of places and countries, as may not render the mutual performance of such duties insuperably difficult. Yet is not the world itself so wide, but that, all places being made pervious by navigation, this communion of churches may be visibly professed, and in some instances practised among all churches, 'from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, where the name of Christ is known among the Gentiles;' wherein the true nature of the catholic church and its union doth consist, which is utterly overthrown by the most vehement pretences that are made unto it, as those in the church of Rome.

Wherefore such a communion of churches is to be inquired after, as from which no true church of Christ is or can be excluded; in whose actual exercise they may and ought all to live, and whereby the general end of all churches in the edification of the catholic church may be attained. This is the true and only catholicism of the church, which whoever departs from, or substitutes any thing else in the room of it, under that name, destroys its whole nature, and disturbs the whole ecclesiastical harmony, that is, of Christ's institution.

However therefore we plead for the rights of particular churches, yet our real controversy with most in the world, is for the being, union, and communion of the church catholic, which are variously perverted by many, and separating it into parties, and confining it to rules, measures, and canons of their own finding out and establishment. For such things as these belong neither to the internal nor external form of that catholic church, whose being in the world, we believe, and whose union we are obliged to preserve. And whoever gives any description of, or limitation to, the catholic church, besides what consist in the communion of particular churches intended, doth utterly overthrow it, and therein an article of our faith.

But this communion of churches cannot be duly apprehended, unless we inquire and determine wherein their union