ter than those that are not fo: We are commanded to love our Enemies, and do good to them that hate us, Mat. v. 44. but we are told, Mat. x. 41, 42. that he that doth the leaft Benefit to a Prophet or Difciple, as fuch, fall have a peculiar Reward. We are in a fpecial Manner required to love the Brotherbood. 1 Pet. ii. 17. to love one another. John XV. 12, 17. and to do good to all, but efpecially to the Houfhold of Faith, Gal. vi. 10. Nor can the with-holding that Degree of Love from an Heathen, which belongs to a pious Chrifiian, be juftly called Perfecution or Hardship, any more than my Neighbour may complain that I perfecute him, because I do not love him fo well as my Brother, or my Father.

Give me Leave to add in this Place, that though the temporal Inconvenience of Shame or Difreputation is not the neceffary Confequent of an Exclufion from a Church for want of Faith, yet these Inconveniencies may certainly and juftly attend the Exclufion of a Perfon for want of good Morals. And St. Paul plainly intimates it, I Cor. v. 9, 10, 11. where he permits them to keep Company with heathen Fornicators, Extortioners or Idolalaters, and to eat with them if they are invited, Chap. x. ver. 27. But he forbids them to allow the fame Degree of Civility to a Fornicator, Extortioner, or Idolater, who calls himself a Brother, or a Chriftian, with

Such

fuch a one, he fays, we should keep no Company, not fo much as to eat with him. So in 2 Theff. iii. 6, 11, 14. concerning diforderly Chriftians and Bufy-bodies that will not work to maintain themselves, the Apostle fays, Withdraw yourselves from every fuch Brother, which may fignify a Withdrawment from spiritual or from civil Communion with him, or perhaps include both. He forbids the Theffalonians to have any Company with him, that he may be ashamed; and the Reason feems to be this: These Practices are juftly accounted fhameful by the Light of Nature, and among the Heathens; now when a Man profeffes fo holy a Religion as Christianity is, and yet practises thefe fhameful Vices, he is guilty of a double Crime, and aggravates his Iniquity; he is a Hypocrite and a Deceiver, as well as a vicious Man, and the Apostle exhorts the Church to make him know and feel the Shame of it.

SECT. II. Another Objection a-kin to the former, seems naturally to rife here, and to want an Answer too, (viz.) Suppose a Man be a real and hearty Christian, holding all the neceffary Articles of the Christian Faith, and he proposes himself to Communion with a Church of narrow and uncharitable Principles, who make more Fundamentals than Chrift has made, shall such a Man be excluded from Communion, mere

1

ly for want of Orthodoxy in the Judgement of an unfkilful Church?

Anfwer. Without Doubt it is a criminal Thing in any Affembly, or Church of Christ, to imagine and create new Fundamentals, and impofe them upon others, or to establish narrow and uncharitable Rules of Communion; yet it is poffible that such a Church may act in the Sincerity of their Hearts, for the Honour of Christ, and the Purity of his Ordinances; many fuch Churches there have been in our Age, and more in the Age of our Fathers; and though it be faulty in them to exclude true Chriftians, yet they must still be the vifible Judges of the Fitness of Perfons for their own vifible Communion, and they are accountable for their Conduct only to Chrift, their fupreme Lord and Judge.

It is better, in my Opinion, therefore, that a Person who is a real Chriftian, should join himself to fome other diftant Church, though it may be with fome Inconvenience; or perhaps it may be better that he fhould live without Ordinances of fpecial Communion, which are not abfolutely neceffary to Salvation, than that he should break the fettled Peace of a Church, which walks with God in Faith, and Holiness, and Comfort, though their Principles of Communion may be a little too narrow and uncharitable, and not to be vindicated. No

Man

Man ought to come into a voluntary Society, and become a Member thereof, without the Confent of the Society, though perhaps they unjustly refuse to give their Consent. They must answer it to Chrift, their Judge, at the great Day. There is nothing in this World perfectly free from all Inconveniencies; Prudence and Christianity ever direct us, of two Evils, to chufe the leaft.

QUESTION X.

Whether a Profeffion to belive the exprefs Words of Scripture, without any Explication, be an Evidence of Knowledge fufficient for Chriftian Communion?

T

SECTION I.

HOUGH what I have already faid under the former Questions, might be fufficient to answer the prefent Enquiry, yet fince in feveral Ages of the Church, and especially in Times of rifing Error this Controverfy has been moved, I shall spend fome Time in fifting it thoroughly, and endeavour to lead my Reader to fuch a Determination of it, as may give a just Satisfaction to an honest and humble Enquirer.

By the express Words of Scripture, I here intend the Words expreffed in our English Bible; or the original Greek and Hebrew

Words