A42758:249
An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of…
An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of ruling-elders and of the authority of presbyteries and synods with a postscript in answer to a treatise lately published against presbyterial government.An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of ruling-elders and of the authority of presbyteries and synods with a postscript in answer to a treatise lately published against presbyteriall government.
Edinburgh: printed for James Bryson, 1641Edinburgh: printed for Iames Bryson, 1641
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.
The dogmatic power of a Synod, is not a power to make new Articles of faith, nor new duties and parts of divine worship, but a power to apply and interpret those Articles of faith, and duties of worship which God hath set before us in his written Word, and to declare the same to be inconsistent with emergent heresies and errors. To this purpose it is that the Apostle calleth the Church the pillar and ground of truth, 1[Greek or Hebrew], not [Greek or Hebrew], which may be expounded either in sensu forensi, the Church is the public witness, notifier and keeper of truth; even as in Courts and places of judgement, there are pillars to which the Edicts of Magistrates are affixed, that people may have notice thereof: or in sensu architectonico ▪ as the Church by her faith is built upon Christ, or (wch is all one) upon the doctrine and truth of ⟨p. 150⟩Christ, contained in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, and leaneth thereto: so by her Ministry she upholdeth, under-propeth, and conserveth this same truth, lest, as the Prophet speaketh, Truth fall in the streets, & perish among men. Truth standeth fast in the Church, and is kept firm, while it is professed, preached, propugned and maintained against all contrary error and heresy. In the same sense saith the Apostle, that unto the Jewish Church were committed the Oracles of God, 2by them to be kept, interpreted, propagated, &c.
The dogmaticke power of a Synod, is not a power to make new Articles of faith, nor new duties and parts of divine worship, but a power to apply and interpret those Articles of faith, and duties of worship which God hath set before us in his written Word, and to declare the same to be inconsistent with emergent heresies and errours. To this purpose it is that the Apostle calleth the Church the pillar and ground of truth, 1〈non-Latin alphabet〉, not 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, which may be expounded either in sensu forensi, the Church is the publicke witnesse, notifier and keeper of truth; even as in Courts and places of judgement, there are pillars to which the Edicts of Magistrates are affixed, that people may have notice thereof: or in sensu architectonico as the Church by her faith is built upon Christ, or (wch is all one) upon the doctrine and truth of