This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt: ... to pay them a respectful deference. But if any of the pastors or teachers erred in doctrine, the people were commanded not "to receive them," to "turn away" from them, and not even to bid them "god speed." The rule which forbids Christians "to eat," that is, to communicate with an immoral "brother," held good, of course, when that brother was a pastor. Thus pastors were put under the influence of the public opinion of the Churches; and the remedy of separating from them, in manifest defections of doctrine and morals, was afforded to the sound members of a Church, where no power existed able or inclined to silence the offending pastor and his party. 2. A perfect religious liberty is always supposed by the apostles to exist among Christians. No compulsion of the civil power is anywhere assumed by them as the basis of their advices or directions; no binding of the members of one Church, without liberty to join another, by any ties but those involved in moral considerations, of sufficient weight, however, to prevent the evils of action and schism. It was this which created a natural and competent check upon the ministers of the Church, for being only sustained by the opinion of the Churches, they could not but have respect to it; and it was this which gave to the sound part of a fallen Church the advantage of renouncing, upon sufficient and wellweighed grounds, their communion with it, and of kindling up the light of a pure ministry and a holy discipline by forming a separate association, bearing its testimony against errors in doctrine and failures in practice. 3. It is also an important general observation that, in settling the government of a Church, there are pre-existent laws of Christ, which it is not in the option of any to receive or...