The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of…

3. It must be faithfully preserved without violation. 1. By the Members of particular Churches, submitting to the Ordinance of Christ, whereby the Church, acting according to Rule, is made under Christ, the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunal, in its own matters, 2 Cor. 8.5. without appealing to other Ecclesiastical Judicatories, who have no power from Christ to dispense Church-censures, or to release men from them, Matth. 18.18.

Object. What if the Brother be not satisfied in the equity of the Churches proceeding? ⟨p. 157⟩Ans. The Elders having declared the mind of Christ from Scripture to guide their proceedings, and the Brethren ether [Greek or Hebrew], or the major part, by far, judging accordingly, let him suspect his own apprehensions, fearing that Satan's temptations, and his own corruptions, Pride, and self-flattery may darken and harden him, Prov. 28.14. 2. Let him attend seriously to the light held forth from Scripture, for his conviction, 2 Cor. 2.6. praying the Lord to make it effectual in him. 3. Let him thankfully close with the light that doth shine unto him, and answerably judge and condemn in himself the evil, which that light reproveth, and follow on to know the whole mind of Christ concerning the nature and compass of his guilt, seeking unto the Elders for further help, with a self-denying spirit, that he may come up fully to the Rule. 4. If he cannot show convictingly to the Church some errors in the Elders expounding or applying the Rule to the Case, whereupon the Censure proceeded, let him fall under the Rule, or look at it as his great sin, and violation of his Covenant, which bound him to submit unto the judgement of the Church, if he find that, through ⟨p. 158⟩