A53671:313
A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of…
A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of the New Testament, by way of question and answer with an explication and confirmation of those answers.
London : s.n., 1667
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
(1.) To keep up Love without dissimulation among all the members of the Church; for if offences should abide unremoved, love which is the bond of perfection, would not long continue in sincerity; which tends to the dissolution of the whole society.
(2.) To gain the offender, by delivering him from the guilt of sin, that he may not lye under it, and procure the wrath of God against himself, Levit. 19.17.
(3.) To preserve his person from dishonour and disreputation, and thereby to keep up his usefulness in the Church. To this end hath our Lord appointed the discharge of this duty in private, that the failings of men may not be unnecessarily divulged, and themselves thereby exposed unto temptation.
(4.) To preserve the Church from that scandal that might befall it, by the hasty opening of all the real or supposed failings of its members. And