small things is not to be despised; the bruised reed is not to be broken, nor the smoking flax to be quenched; the tender lambs are gathered into Christ's arms, and carried in his bosom ; the weak in faith are to be received, and not to doubtful disputations. 7. Testimony should be given of their becoming life and conversation. 8. The reception of a member into church communion must be by mutual consent; if there is a pastor, the person must be received by him, if not by a brother appointed by the church for that purpose, the token of which is by giving the right hand of fellowship, Gal. ii. 9. I proceed,

II. To consider the ordinances, laws, and rules to be kept and observed by those who are admitted into the church. 1. There are ordinances they are directed to the observation of. Besides the ordinance of baptism, which is preparatory to church communion, there are the ordinances of public prayer and praise, and the public ministry of the word, which are constantly to be attended upon; it is very unbecoming members of churches to forsake the assembling of themselves together for public worship. 2. There are also the laws of the house, which are to be shewn to members of churches, and to be observed by them; Christ is Lawgiver in it. 3. There are certain rules respecting private admonitions of church members, which deserve special regard. The rule in Matt. xviii. 15.-17. If thy Brother shall trespass against thee, &c. is an excellent good one, and may be accomodated to all cases in difference between two persons.

III. The next thing to be inquired into is, what concerns the goings out of the house or church of God, and what may be meant by them. There are but two ways of going out of a church; either by a dismission from it, or by an excommunication out of it. There are, indeed, letters of recommendation, which are wanting in some cases, the apostles needed them not, 2 Cor. iii. 1. such as were given to Apollos, Acts xviii. 27. to Phebe, Rom. xvi. 1, 2. and to Marcus, Col. iv. 10.

But these do not give membership;

only transient communion; the person recommended still remains a member from whence he is recommended; if a person takes up his residence in a place where he is in providence brought, he should send for his dismission, and be received upon it into full communion. There are cases in which a man may desire his dismission to another church, as distance of habitation, non-edification, and when a church is become corrupt in doctrine and practice, that he cannot conscientiuously abide with them. The other way of, going out of a church is excommunication, it will be necessary to consider, 1. What excommunication is. 1. It is not a being reckoned as an heathen man and a publican; nor a delivery of one to Satan, as has been shewn. 2. Nor does it affect the temporal estate and civil affairs of a man, 3. Nor does it admit of degrees; the Jews had three sorts of excommunication, which proceeded gradually; but there is but one among christians. Some think a suspension from the Lord's table is in some cases necessary; when a case is dubious, and there is not time thoroughly to inquire into it, and yet offence and scandal arises upon it: a person indeed, may be desired to abstain from the Lord's table, and a man that seeks the peace of the church, will consent to it: but he cannot be obliged to abstain; if he is obstinate and refractory, there is no other way but to expel him. 4. Excommunication is no other than a removal of a man from the communion of the church, and from all privileges dependent upon it. 5. This act is expressed by various phrases; as by avoiding familiar conversation with such; by not keeping company with them; and by not eating with them at the Lord's table, by purging out from them the old leaven, &c. 11. Who they are that are to be excommunicated. 1. Such who are disturbers of the church's peace, who cause divisions and offences, who are litigious and quarrelsome, 1 Cor. xi. 16. 2. Who do not keep their places in the church, do not attend when the church assembles together for religious worship, and who do in a sort cut off themselves from the communion of the church,

Jud. verse 19. 3. All such who walk disorderly, as the above persons do, are irregular in their lives and conversations, guilty of immoralities, though it may be thought of a lesser kind, as sloth, busy bodies, going from house to house, doing mischief, &c. 2 Thess. iii. 6-14. 4. All such who commit attrocious crimes, unrepented of, and continued in; as forni. cators, covetous, idolaters, railers, drunkards, extortioners, &. 1 Cor. v. 11. Eph. v. 5. 5. All erroneous and heretical persons, who hold and propagate doctrines contrary to what has been learnt from the word of God, and in the churches of Christ: such are to be avoided and declined from Rom. xvi. 17. II. By whom excommunication is to be performed. 1. Not by a member himself; no man has a right to cut off himself; such a man is a felo de se; as a man cannot come into a church without the consent of it, so neither can he go out of it, without its consent. 2. Nor is it to be performed by any single person of himself, whether an ordinary or an extraordinary minister it never was done by an apostle, an evangelist, or any other one man; for it is a punishment inflicted by many. 3. Nor is it to be done by the elders of a church separately; much less by the elders of other churches. IV. What are the ends of excommunication. 1. The glory of God, which is the ultimate end of it; as the Jews of old, in a similar case, Isai. lxvi. 5. 2. Another end is to purge the church, and preserve it from infection, 1 Cor. v. 7, 13. Lepers were to be put out of the camp, that they might not infect others 8. A church of Christ is like a garden, or vineyard, which, if not taken care of, and this ordinance of excommunication not made use of will be like the vineyard of the slothful, over run with thorns and nettles and other weeds. 4. The good of persons excommunicated is another end, and is sometimes effected by it, God blessing his own institution when rightly performed, which is for edification, and not destruction; men are hereby brought to shame and repentance for their sins, and are to be received again with all love and tenderness,

BOOK III.

OF THE PUBLIC ORDINANCES OF
DIVINE WORSHIP.

OF BAPTISM.

BAPTISM is not an ordinance administered in the church, but out of it, and in order to admission into it, and communion with it; persons must first be baptized, and then added to the church, as the three thousand converts were. Admission to baptism lies solely in the breast of the adminis trator; if not satisfied, he may reject a person thought fit by a church, and admit a person to baptism not thought fit by a church; but a disagreement is not desirable not adviscable. Saul, when converted, was immediately baptized by Ananias, Acts ix. 11-28. I shall,

I. Prove that baptism in water is peculiar to the gospel dispensation, is a standing ordinance in it, and will be continued to the second coming of Christ. There were indeed, divers washings, bathings, or baptisms, under the legal dispensation; but there was nothing similar in them to the ordinance of water baptism, but immersion only. The Jews pretend, their ancestors were received into covenant by baptism, or dipping, as well as by circumcision and sacrifice; and that proselytes from heathenism were received the same way; and this is readily catched at by the advocates for infant baptism, who fancy that John, Christ, and his apostles, took up this custom as they found it, and continued it: but surely if it was in such common use as pretended, though no new pre

cept has been given, there would have been precedents enough of it; but no proof is to be given of any such practice obtaining in those times, neither from the Old nor New Testament, nor from the Jewish Misnah, or book of traditions; only from later writings of the Jews, too late for the proof of it before those times. John was the first administrator of the ordinance of baptism, and is therefore called the Baptist, Matt. iii. 1. by way of emphasis; whereas, had it been in common use, there must have been many baptizers before him, who had a like claim to this title: why should the people be so alarmed with it had it been in frequent use; and why should the Jewish sanhedrim send priests and Levites from Jerusalem to John, to know who he was, whether the Messiah, or his forerunner Elias, or that prophet spoken of and expected; and when he confessed and denied that he was neither of them, say to him, Why baptizest thou then? had it been performed by an ordinary teacher, common Rabbi, or doctor, priest or Levite, in ages immemorial, there could have been no room for such a question; had this been the case, there would have been no difficulty with the Jews to answer the question of our Lord: the baptism of John, whence was it, from heaven or of men? they could have answered, It was a tradition of theirs; nor would they have been subject to any dilemma: but John's baptism was not a device of men; but the counsel of God, Luke vii. 30. John i. 6. 33.

Now John's baptism, and that of Christ and his apostles, were the same. Christ was baptized by John, and his bap tism was surely christian baptism; of this no one can doubt, Matt. iii. 13-17. and his disciples also were baptized by him; for by whom else could they be baptized? not by Christ himself, for he baptized none, John vi. 2. And it is observable, that the baptism of John, and the baptism of Christ and his apostles, were at the same time; they were cotemporary, and did not the one succeed the other: now it is not reasonable to suppose there should be two sorts of baptism admini stered at the same time; but one and the same by both,