has taken cognizance of private offences, and detailed the mode of their adjustment. Where such high authority is concerned, recollect, dear brethren, that your feelings are not to be the guide of your conduct. To follow these, to the disregard of his injunctions, would be perilous in the extreme. You may think the requisition severe, and unnecessary, and you may quarrel with the officers of the church for attempting to carry them into effect; but recollect, that the law is of Christ's forming, and not of ours; and that to him you must give an account.

It also becomes the officers of the church to weigh well the force of Christ's statutes, and be careful how they carry them into execution. Either to transcend our powers, or through fear or favour, to fail of giving them their full operation, according to the demands of the Saviour, will be highly criminal, and dangerous. To guard against such unhappy results, let both the officers and members of the church cultivate more of the spirit of prayer, and less of the spirit of contention and strife. Though offences must come, they would come less frequently, and be disposed of more easily, if the whole church were importunate at the throne of grace for the peace and prosperity of Zion. Oh! brethren, when shall we all learn the heavenly lesson of praying down the offences, and disorders of the church? When shall the mischievous spirit of strife, which seeks to diffuse the leaven of malice, and ill-will, give place to the holy breathings of that charity which rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;" and which "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all

things, endureth all things ?" It will only be when the church shall agree, as one man, to ask it of the Father, to do it for them. May the good Lord hasten forward that blessed day, and in the mean time, let it be our united cry, "Even so come Lord Jesus: come quickly. Amen."

LETTER V.

CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,

THERE are many who, although they admit the existence of an authoritative power in the church, give it such a circumscribed operation, as to render it of very little practical utility. Finding this power so clearly recognized in various passages of scripture, and its application to private offences, and the case of the incestuous person in the Corinthian church so evidently asserted, they are not prepared to hazard a denial either of the general principle, or the propriety of its application in these particular cases. But while they are constrained to go thus far, they utterly deny the right of the church to extend her authority to any other cases than those which are specifically, and expressly detailed. In the cases specified, it is allowed that we have the authority of express statute, for the exercise of church power, but that in all other cases to which it is attempted to be applied, there is a stretch of prerogative not warranted by the word of God. And it is urged, that an extension of church authority beyond the cases defined by express statute, is placing a discretionary power in the hands of the officers of the church, highly dangerous to the liberties of the people. For if we

have no express scriptural statutes defining what offences are cognizable by church courts, then any thing may be made an offence which the caprice, or prejudice, or malignity of the officers of the church may dictate."

It is my design, in the present Letter, to examine how far objections of this kind are founded on truth, and shew you on what grounds, and to what extent, the practice of the church, in applying her authority to other cases than those which are expressly specified, can be sustained from the scriptures. By looking back to Letter iii, where the case of the incestuous person at Corinth is under review, you will find some remarks tending to establish the right and duty of the church to deal with other offenders, than that particular one whose case constitutes the theme of the Apostle's instructions on the subject. I would now add, that on every principle of fair construction, it is manifest, that "fornicators, and covetous, and idolaters, and railers, and drunk. ards, and extortioners," who are there mentioned, are equally liable to the operation of church authority, with him who was guilty of such fornication, as is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife."* The whole structure of the Apostle's argument requires, that we give this extent to the application of that power which Christ has conferred on the officers of the church, for edification, and not for destruction." For if with such, we are required "no not to eat ;" then, evidently, not to hold spiritual fellowship in the sacraments of the Redeemer's house. But we have already shewn you, that to justify us in * I. Cor. 5. II. Cor. 10. 8. Letter iv.