A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of…

Such a Church he supposeth and approveth, as his Disciples had relation ⟨p. 95⟩unto, and as any one of them could have recourse unto as a Brother, in obedience to his commands and directions. This could not be the Church of the Jews neither in its whole body, nor in any of its Judicatories. For as at that time there was a solemn decree of excommunication against all and every one that should profess his Name; John 9.22. The Jews had already agreed that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the Synagogue; which was executed accordingly upon the man that was born blind, Verse the 34. which utterly disabled them from making any use of this direction, command or Institution of his for the present; So afterwards the chief business of the Rulers of those Assemblies from the highest court of their Sanhedrin, to the meanest Judicatory in their Synagogues, was to persecute them, and bring them unto death. Math. 10.17. They will deliver ye up to the Councils and they will scourge you in their Synagogues. John 15.21. And it is not likely that the Lord Christ would send his Disciples for direction and satisfaction ⟨p. 96⟩in the weighty matters of their obedience unto him, and mutual love towards one another, unto them with whom they neither had, nor could, nor ought to have any thing to do withal; and if they were intended, they were all already made as heathens and Publicans, being cast out by them for refusing to hear them in their blasphemies and persecutions of Christ himself. Such a society also is plainly intended, as whereunto Christ promiseth his presence by his spirit, and whose righteous sentences he takes upon himself to ratify and confirm in Heaven.

Such a Church he supposeth and approveth, as his Disciples had relation ⟨p. 95⟩unto, and as any one of them could have recourse unto as a Brother, in obedience to his commands and directions. This could not be the Church of the Jews neither in its whole body, nor in any of its Judicatories. For as at that time there was a solemn decree of excommunication against all and every one that should profess his Name;