All discipline ought,therefore,to tend to that end,and all ecclesiastical laws to be thereunto confined.Nothing ought nor can be transacted in this society relating to the possession of civil and worldly goods.No force is here to be made use of upon any occasion whatsoever.For force belongs wholly to the civil magistrate,and the possession of all outward goods is subject to his jurisdiction.But,it may be asked,by what means then shall ecclesiastical laws be established,if they must be thus destitute of all compulsive power?Ianswer:They must be established by means suitable to the nature of such things,whereof the external profession and observation-if not proceeding from a thorough conviction and approbation of the mind-is altogether useless and unprofitable.The arms by which the members of this society are to be kept within their duty are exhortations,admonitions,and advices.If by these means the offenders will not be reclaimed,and the erroneous convinced,there remains nothing further to be done but that such stubborn and obstinate persons,who give no ground to hope for their reformation,should be cast out and separated from the society.This is the last and utmost force of ecclesiastical authority.No other punishment can thereby be inflicted than that,the relation ceasing between the body and the member which is cut off.The person so condemned ceases to be a part of that church.These things being thus determined,let us inquire,in the next place:
How far the duty of toleration extends,and what is required from everyone by it?And,first,I hold that no church is bound,by the duty of toleration,to retain any such person in her bosom as,after admonition,continues obstinately to offend against the laws of the society.For,these being the condition of communion and the bond of the society,if the breach of them were permitted without any animadversion the society would immediately be thereby dissolved.But,nevertheless,in all such cases care is to be taken that the sentence of excommunication,and the execution thereof,carry with it no rough usage of word or action whereby the ejected person may any wise be damnified in body or estate.For all force (as has often been said)belongs only to the magistrate,nor ought any private persons at any time to use force,unless it be in self-defence against unjust violence.
Excommunication neither does,nor can,deprive the excommunicated person of any of those civil goods that he formerly possessed.All those things belong to the civil government and are under the magistrate's protection.
The whole force of excommunication consists only in this:that,the resolution of the society in that respect being declared,the union that was between the body and some member comes thereby to be dissolved;and,that relation ceasing,the participation of some certain things which the society communicated to its members,and unto which no man has any civil right,comes also to cease.For there is no civil injury done unto the excommunicated person by the church minister's refusing him that bread and wine,in the celebration of the Lord's Supper,which was not bought with his but other men's money.Secondly,no private person has any right in any manner to prejudice another person in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church or religion.All the rights and franchises that belong to him as a man,or as a denizen,are inviolably to be preserved to him.These are not the business of religion.No violence nor injury is to be offered him,whether he be Christian or Pagan.Nay,we must not content ourselves with the narrow measures of bare justice;charity,bounty,and liberality must be added to it.This the Gospel enjoins,this reason directs,and this that natural fellowship we are born into requires of us.If any man err from the right way,it is his own misfortune,no injury to thee;nor therefore art thou to punish him in the things of this life because thou supposest he will be miserable in that which is to come.What I say concerning the mutual toleration of private persons differing from one another in religion,I understand also of particular churches which stand,as it were,in the same relation to each other as private persons among themselves:nor has any one of them any manner of jurisdiction over any other;no,not even when the civil magistrate (as it sometimes happens)comes to be of this or the other communion.For the civil government can give no new right to the church,nor the church to the civil government.