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and yet methinks, there appears little Reason for the Difpute; if we confider, who our Lord here fpoke to, and that farther Authority invefted in the Perfons fpoken to afterwards. That the Church could not mean the whole Body of Believers, is evident, because in a little Time, Believers grew fo numerous, that it was morally impoffible to acquaint them all with the Cafe to be difcuffed. St. Peter converted Three Thoufand with his firft Sermon ; Five Thoufand with the Next; or let it be fuppos'd, but not granted, that he only made the former Three Thousand, Five; yet fince we know, that the Word of God grew mightily and prevail'd, and that Multitudes were daily added to the Church of fuch as fhould be fav'd; in this Cafe our Saviour's Rule was impracticable, if the Offence committed by the trefpaffing Brother were to be told to all fuch as believ'd in Jerufalem. It is reasonable to conclude, from the ufual Management of Women in the Eaftern Parts of the World, that the Three Thousand and the Five Thousand, who were gotten together to hear the Apostles, were all Men, fuch only being fit to thruft into publick Crouds: But we may be fure, that when the Zeal of the new-made Converts was warm, and every Day encreafing, the Men who had newly found the Way to Heaven, would be fure to publish the glad Tydings imparted to themselves, to their Wives and Children, and fuch other Friends and Relations as they had at or near Home, by which Care the Number of Believers must have been exceedingly increas'd. And if by the Church in the Text, we must mean the Church diffufive, all these must be included in it; and every one of them must have as much Rea

Reason to hear and determine in the Cafe as any of them: But to imagine, that Christians were obliged to fuch Impoffibilities, (and greater they grew, if there can be Degrees of Impoffibilities) in the following Ages, is ridiculous: And what Harmony there is generally, among Multitudes of fuch different Underftandings and Capacities, Experience every Day informs us. That the Church Diffufive, or the whole Body of Believers was not meant by the Church in this Text we ftedfastly believe.

But ftill the Complaint against the trefpaffing Brother was to be made to the Church. The Twelve were the Perfons here spoken to; the Rule was not to be put in Practice, till fuch as believ'd in, Chrift were form'd into that Body call'd the Church. The Twelve were to be the Mafter-Builders, the Teachers and Governours of the Church; and confequently were to be the great Determiners of Controverfies, and Prefervers of the Peace of the Church, and to them were, in the very next Words, committed the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now to whomfoever this Power and Authority of hearing and determining Complaints in the Church was committed at this Time; to the fame Perfons it was committed for all fucceeding Ages: If therefore, the Apostles, as the Inftructors and Governours of the Church, were made the Deciding Judges now; those who in the following Ages fhould fucceed to the Paftoral and governing Power of the Apoftles, were made Determining Judges in the fame Cafes as they were. Whether the Apoftles, who were extraordinarily influenced by the Spirit of God, as their Business required, or the diffufive Mul

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δρέυεσι.
In Matt.

titude of Believers, who are commonly fo many Men, fo many Minds, were the more competent Judges, on fuch Occafions as thefe; and whether the Holy Spirit of God was likely to refer fuch Matters to an incompetent Judicature, which might be more eafily determin'd by Perfons always ready and prepared, and instructed for that Purpofe; I may leave any Man of ordinary Senfe to determine.

By the Church, therefore in the Text, our Saviour means the Apoftles then living, and the Bishops and Paftors of the Church, the lawful Succeffors of the Apostles, in all following Generations. The Apoftles then were, and the Bishops and Presbyters ftill are the Church Reprefentative: As they are commiffioned to teach and govern them all; fo they, as being fewer in Number, may the more eafily meet; and as being Men of more Learning and Education, are like to have good and well weigh'd Judgments And as they are to answer for their People at the great Day, and may do so, comfortably or uncomfortably, as they have difcharged their Truft toward them in this World'; fo they are the fittest to reprefent the Diffusive Body of them: And if they are thought fit to inftruct them in the Way to everlasting Life, they are certainly fit to determine all Disputes and Controverfies among them. Hence St. Chry

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Tois pa-foftom renders, "Tell the Church, tell the Bi"fhops or Governours of the Church ;" and Hom. 60. Theophylact to the fame Purpose, "Let the MatTESTS Ex-" ter be told to the Rulers or Bifhops of the xoias po- Church." So we are taught in feveral Places, Theoph. to obey them who are over us in the Lord, and to

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Submit our felves, because they watch for our Souls: And we find the Apoftles ordering and commanding and threatning in cafe of Difobedience; which Things confidered, muft needs render their Determinations obligatory and authentick. But we never find or hear of any Charge, that we should fubmit our felves to the Multitude or to the Major Part of Believers. Nor had they ever any Power to exercise any Discipline, to adminifter any religious Ordinance, to call any before themselves, or to pass any Sentence upon an Offender; tho' perhaps they might fometimes, as many as were prefent at an Affembly of Church Governours, (as all Standers by are ready to do,), exprefs their Approbation or Diflike of what was determined by their Bifhops and Paftors; the Bifhops and their Presbyters being in the Church what our Parliamentary Lords and Commons in thefe Nations are in the State; both the proper Representatives of the Body of Believers, to declare their Wants, and the proper Judges to determine all emergent Controverfies, as to Faith and Difcipline; and fo to tell them, was to tell the Church of any Offences given; as to lay Matters before our Parliamentary Affemblies, is to acquaint the whole Nation with any Cafe, which we defire fhould be publick.

But now, were there no Authority fettled in thefe Spiritual Officers, who prefide in the Church; it were very unreasonable to lay fo fevere a Penalty upon the obftinate and difobedient, as to have them treated only like Publicans and Heathens, Perfons unfit for Chriftians to hold Communication with, and to be avoided as much as we would ordinarily avoid a Man

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tainted with the Plague or Leprofy. But when our Saviour commits the Power of the Keys to his Apoftles, his very Words feem to determine the Matter before us plainly enough; Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth, fays our Saviour, hall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loofe on Earth, fhall be loofed in Heaven. Now this Grant following immediately after that Order of telling the Church; fhows that the representative Body of the Church,and not the diffufiveMembers of it, were the Church here meant: For if those were to be treated as Heathens and Publicans, i. e. to be bound upon Earth, who would not hear the Church; and none in the Church had the Power of binding Offenders upon Earth, but only the Twelve, and fuch as they should entruft with the fame Power afterwards, then by our Master's Order, none but the Apostles and their lawful Succeffors in the Inftruction and Government of the Church, could be those to whom our Mafter would have the Perfons really offended to addrefs themselves; And we may be fure, God would never fet his Seal to the Cenfure of the Apostles and their Succeffours, fo as 4 to bind that or those in Heaven which they had bound on Earth, if they had prefumed to go beyond their Bounds, and to exercise Difcipline without Commiffion.

He who was fuch a Trefpaffer, as our Lord refers to, and takes Order about here, was not to be put to Death by the Governours of the Church, as, in cafe of trefpaffing against human Laws, he might have been by the Magiftrate; but he was to be excommunicated, to be thrust out of the Fellowship of the Faithful, to be deprived of all thofe Benefits accruing from the

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