The true nature of a Gospel church and its government

3. EVERY Society hath this Power towards those who are incorporated in it by their own consent, and not towards others. For whence should they have such a Power, or who should commit it unto them? Nor can any be cast out from those Privileges which they never had an Interest in, nor a Right unto. The Apostles Rule holds in this case, especially with respect unto Churches; What have we to do to judge them that are without. And as unto the exercise of this Power, they are all to be esteemed to be without, who are not rightly incorporated into that particular Church, by which they may be ejected out of it. A Power of Excommunication at Random towards all that those who exercise it can extend force unto, hath no foundation either in the Light of Nature or Authority of the Scripture. And it would be ridiculous in any Corporation to disfranchise such as never belonged unto it, who were never Members of it.

4. THE only Reason or Cause for the expulsion of any Person out of such a Society, is a wilful deviation from the Rules and Laws of the Society, whose observance he had engaged unto upon his entrance into it. Nothing else can be required unto the Preservation of a Mans Interest in any Right or Privilege, but what he took upon himself to perform in his Admittance into it. And if the great Rule of every Church-Society, be, That Men observe and do whatsoever the Lord Christ hath commanded, none can be justly ejected out of that Society, but upon a wilful disobedience unto his Commands. And therefore ¹the casting of Men out of Church▪Communion on light and trivial occasions, or for any Reasons or Causes whatever, but such as essentially belong unto the Rules and Laws whereon the Church doth originally coalesce into a Society, is contrary unto Natural Light, and the Reason of the Things themselves.

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