A37042:674
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal…
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal divided into four parts ... : in each of which there are not a few choice and useful questions, very shortly and satisfyingly discussed and cleared / by ... Mr. James Durham ... who being dead (by this) yet speaketh ; and published by John Carstares ... ; to which is prefixed an excellent preface of famous Mr. Blair ... ; together with a table of the contents of the several chapters of each part.
Edinburgh: printed by Christopher Higgins, 1659
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
For the first, Debates about the nature and form1 of Government, may be considered doctrinally, and so it is a difference of judgement; Some think one form of Government lawful, and others not that, but another. If this difference be fairly carried, it needeth make no division in the Church, as was in the foregoing part hinted. 2. It may be considered practically, that is, when men not only think so differently in their judgement, but accordingly they act, driving opposite designs, as if they were two parties, seeking to get one Church subdued to them, and neither2 of them doth acknowledge the other. This cannot be without division; for, the ground of all union and communion in the visible Church in all the Ordinances of Christ, is, the unity of the visible Church; as even in old time Augustine did press: So Ecclesiastic union, must be made up and entertained in a Church, by an unity in the Government thereof; for though there may be a forbearance and a kind of peace where the unity of the visible Church is denied, or where there are divided Governments that are not subaltern; yet there can be no Church-union, nor communion in Ordinances, of Word, Sacraments and Government, which results from the former, and doth necessarily presuppose the same. We dare not, nor cannot offer any directions for making up an union here, save that men would unite in one ⟨p. 371⟩form of Government that can extend to the whole body, and that in such a Government as is allowed by Christ, otherwayes it can be no union; because so it were not a duty, as union is.
For the first, Debates about the nature and form1 of Government, may be considered doctrinally, and so it is a difference of judgement; Some think one form of Government lawfull, and others not that, but another. If this difference be fairly carried, it needeth make no division in the Church, as was in the foregoing part hinted. 2. It may be considered practically, that is, when men not only think so differently in their judgement, but accordingly they act, driving opposit designs, as if they were two parties, seeking to get one Church subdued to them, and neither