Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. (Proverbs 23)
It is no doubt true, that the very suggestion of the necessity and importance of discipline in the church is odious to many who bear the Christian name.
The worldly and careless portion of every church consider the interposition of ecclesiastical inspection and authority, in reference to the lives and conversation of its members, as officious and ofiensive meddling with private concerns.
They would much rather retain their external standing as professors of religion, and, at the same time pursue their unhallowed pleasures without control. They never wish to see a minister, as such, but in the pulpit; or any church officers in any other than his seat in the sanctuary.
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