XXXII.

own natural ftrength, and in which they have not any ART. promife in the Golpel, that affures them of divine afliftances to enable them to keep it. This is, therefore, a tempting of God, when men pretend to ferve him, by affuming a stricter courfe of life than either he has commanded, or they are able to go through with. And it may prove a great fnare to them, when by fuch rafh vows they are engaged into fuch a ftate of life, in which they live in conftant temptations to fin, without either command or promife, on which they can reft as to the execution of them.

This is to lead themfelves into temptation, in oppofition to that which our Saviour has made a petition of that prayer which he himself has taught us. Out of this, great diftractions of mind, and a variety of different temptations may, and probably will, arife; and that the rather, because the vow is made; there being fomewhat in our natures that will always ftruggle the harder, because they are reftrained. It is certain that every man, who dedicates himself to the fervice of God, ought to try if he can dedicate himself fo entirely to it, as to live out of all the concerns and entanglements of life. If he can maintain his purity in it, he will be enabled thereby to labour the more effectually, and may expect both the greater fuccefs here, and a fuller reward hereafter. But because both his temper and his circumftances may fo change, that what is an advantage to him in one part of his life, may be a fnare and an incumbrance to him in another part of it, he ought therefore to keep this matter ftill in his own power, and to continue in that liberty, in which God has left him free, that fo he may do, as he fhall find it to be moft expedient for himself, and for the work of the Gofpel.

Therefore it is to be concluded, that it is unlawful either to impofe, or to make fuch vows. And, fuppofing that any have been engaged in them, more, perhaps, out of the importunity or authority of others, than their own choice; then though it is certainly a character of a man that shall dwell in God's holy hill, that though be fwears Pfal. xv. 4. to his own burt, yet be changes not; he is to confider, whether he can keep fuch a vow, without breaking the commandments of God, or not: if he can, then, certainly, he ought to have that regard to the name of God, that was called upon in the vow, and to the folemnities of it, and to the fcandals that may follow upon his breaking it, that if he can continue in that ftate, without finning against God, he ought to do it, and to endeavour all he can to keep his

9.

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ART. vow, and preferve his purity. But if, after he has ufed XXXII. both fafting and prayer, he fill finds that the obligation

of his vow is a fnare to him, and that he cannot both keep it, and alfo keep the commandments of God; then the two obligations, that of the law of God, and that of his vow, happening to ftand in one another's way, certainly the leffer muft give place to the greater. Herod's cath Matth. xiv. was ill and rafhly made, but worfe kept, when, for bis oatb's fake, he ordered the head of John the Baptift to be Matth. xv. cut off. Our Saviour condemns that practice among the Jews, of vowing that to the Corban or treasure of the Temple, which they ought to have given to their parents, and imagining that, by fuch means, they were not obliged to take care of them, or to fupply them. The obligation to keep the commandments of God is indispensable, and antecedent to any act or vow of ours, and therefore it cannot be made void by any vow that we may take upon us: and if we are under a vow, which expofes us to temptations that do often prevail, and that probably will prevail long upon us, then we ought to repent of our rafhnefs in making any fuch vow, but muft not continue in the obfervation of it, if it proves to us like the taking fire into our bofom, or the handling of pitch. A vow that draws many temptations upon us, that are above our trength to refift them, is, certainly, much better broken and repented of, than kept. So that, to conclude, celibate is not a matter fit to be the fubject either of a law, or a vow; every man must confider himself, and what he is able to receive: He that marries does well, but be that marries not does better.

ARTICLE

ARTICLE XXXIII.

Of Excommunicate Perfons, how they are to be avoided.

That Perlon which, by open Denunciation of the Church, is rightly cut off from the Unitp of the Church, and Excommunicate, ought to be taken of the whole Multitude of the Faithful, as a Heathen and a Publican: Until he be openly reconciled by Penance, and be received into the Church by a Judge that hath Authoritp thereunto.

A

LL Chriftians are obliged to a ftrict purity and holinefs of life: and every private man is bound to avoid all unneceffary familiarities with bad and vicious men ; both because he may be infenfibly corrupted by thefe, and because the world will be from thence difpofed to think, that he takes pleasure in fuch persons, and in their vices. What every fingle Chriftian ought to fet as a rule to himfelf, ought to be likewife made the rule of all Chriftians, as they are conftituted in a body under guides and paftors. And as, in general, fevere denunciations ought to be often made of the wrath and judgments of God against finners; fo if any that is called a Brother, that is, a Chrif tian, lives in a courfe of fin and fcandal, they ought to give warning of fuch a perfon, to all the other Chriftians, that they may not fo much as eat with him, but may fepa- 1 Cor. v, rate themfelves from him.

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In this private perfons ought to avoid the moroseness and affectation of faying, Stand by, for I am bolier than thou: if one is overtaken in a fault, then those who are fpiri- Gal. vi. 1. tual ought to reflore fuch a one in the fpirit of meekness: every one confidering himself, left he be alfo tempted. Exceffive rigour will be always fufpected of hypocrify, and may drive thofe on whom it falls either into despair on the one hand, or into an unmanageable licentiousness on the other.

The nature of all focieties muft import this, that they have a power to maintain themfelves according to the defign and rules of their fociety. A combination of men, made upon any bottom whatsoever, must be fuppofed to have a right to exclude out of their number fuch as may be a reproach to it, or a mean to diffolve it: and it must be a main part of the office and duty of the paftors of the Church,

XXXIII.

ART. Church, to feparate the good from the bad, to warn the unruly, and to put from among them wicked perfons. There are feveral confiderations that fhew not only the lawfulness, but the neceflity of fuch a practice.

First, that the contagion of an ill example and of bad practices may not fpread too far to the corrupting of others: Evil communications corrupt good manners. Their 2 Tim. ii. doctrines will eat and fpread as a gangrene: and therefore, in order to the preferving the purity of thofe, who are not yet corrupted, it may be neceffary to note fuch persons, and 2 Theff. iii. to have no company with them.

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Jude 23.

A fecond reafon relates to the perfons themselves, that are fo feparated, that they may be ashamed; that they may be thus pulled out of the fire, by the terror of fuch a proceeding, which ought to be done by mourning over them, 2 Cor. ii. lamenting their fins, and praying for them.

Cor. v.

2, 5, 7.

1, 2, 3.

1 Tim. i.

20.

The Apoftles made ufe even of thofe extraordinary powers that were given to them, for this end. St. Paul delivered Hymenæus and Alexander unto Satan, that they might learn not to blafpheme. And he ordered that the inceftuous perfon at Corinth bould be delivered to Satan for the deftruction of the flesh, that the fpirit might be faved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Certainly a vicious indulgence to finners is an encouragement to them to live in fin; whereas when others about them try all methods for their recovery, and mourn for thofe fins in which they do perhaps glory, and do upon that withdraw themfelves from all communication with them, both in fpirituals, and as much as may be in temporals likewife; this is one of the laft means that can be ufed, in order to the reclaiming of them.

Another confideration is the peace and the honour of Gal. v. 12. the fociety. St. Paul wifhed that they were cut off that troubled the Churches: great care ought to be taken, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blafphemed, and to give no occafion to the enemies of our faith to reproach us; as if we defigned to make parties, to promote our own interefts, and to turn religion to a faction; excufing fuch as adhere to us in other things, though they fhould break out into the moft fcandalous violations of the greatest of all the commandments of God. Such a behaviour towards excommunicated perfons, would also have this further good effect; it would give great authority to that fentence, and fill men's minds with the awe of it, which muft be taken off, when it is obferved that men converfe familiarly with those that are under it.

Thefe rules are all founded upon the principles of focietics,

XXXIII.

cieties, which as they affociate upon fome common defigns, ART. fo, in order to the pursuing thofe, muft have a power to separate themselves from those who depart from them.

In this matter there are extremes of both hands to be avoided: fome have thought, that because the Apostles have, in general, declared fuch perfons to be accurfed, or under an Anathema, who preach another Gospel, and fuch as 1 Cor. xvi. love not the Lord Jefus, to be Anathema Maranatba, which 22. is generally underfood to be a total cutting off, never to be admitted till the Lord comes; that therefore the Church may ftill put men under an Anathema, for holding fuch unfound doctrines, as they think make the Gospel to become another, in part at least, if not in whole; and that the may thereupon, in imitation of another practice of the Apoftles, deliver them over unto Satan, cafting them out of the protection of Chrift, and abandoning them to the Devil: reckoning that the cutting them off from the body of Chrift is really the expofing them to the Devil, who goes about as a roaring lion feeking whom he may devour. But with what authority foever the Apoftles might, upon fo great a matter, as the changing the Gofpel, or the not loving the Lord Jefus, denounce an Anathema, yet the applying this which they used fo feldom, and upon fuch great occafions, to every opinion, after a decifion is made in it, as it has carried on the notion of the infallibility of the Church, fo it has laid a foundation for much uncharitablenefs, and many animofities: it has widened breaches, and made them incurable. And unless it is certain that the Church which has fo decreed cannot err, it is a bold affuming of an authority to which no fallible body of men can have a right. That delivery unto Satan was vifibly an act of a miraculous power lodged with the Apostles: for as they ftruck fome blind or dead, fo they had an authority of letting loofe evil fpirits on fome to haunt and terrify, or to punish and plague them, that a desperate evil might be cured by an extreme remedy. And therefore the Apoftles never reckon this among the standing functions of the Church; nor do they give any charge or directions about it. They ufed it themselves, and but feldom. It is true, that St. Paul being carried by a juft zeal against the fcandal, which the inceftuous perfon at Corinth had caft upon the Chriftian religion, did adjudge him to this fevere degree of cenfure: but he judged it, and did only order the Corinthians to publish it, as coming from him, with the power of our Lord Jefus Chrift: that fo the thing might become the more public, and that the effects of it might be the more confpicuous. The

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