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CHAP. IV. The second Argument taken from Matth. 18.17.
OUR second argument we take from Matth. 18.17. Tell the Church. Let an obstinate offender, whom no ad∣monition doth amend, bee brought and jud∣ged by the Church. Where first of all, it is to bee condescended upon, That though hee speaketh by allusion to the Jewish Church, as is evident by these words, Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a Publican; Yet hee meaneth of the Christian Church, when he saith, Tell the Church, as may appeare by the words following, Whatsoever ye bind on earth, &c. which is meant of the Apostles and Ministers of ••he Gospell, Joh. 20.23. so that hee did not send them to the Synedrium of the Jewes, when hee bade them tell the Church: nor, 2. doth hee meane of the Church universall; for then we should have none of our wrongs redressed, because wee cannot assemble the Church universall; nay, nor the representative of it, which is an Oecu∣menicke Councell: Nor 3. can wee under∣derstand it of the collective body, of a parti∣cular