A42763:222
CXI propositions concerning the ministry and government of the ChurchCXI propositions concerning the ministerie and government of the Church
Edinburgh: printed by Evan Tyler, 1647
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
108.
It can hardly be doubted or called in question, but besides these, other learned and Godly Divines of those Churches were and are of the same mind herein, with those now cited; and indeed the very Confession of Faith of the Churches of Helvetia, Chap. 18. may be an evidence hereof. But there ought to be in the mean time a just Discipline amongst Ministers, for the doctrine and life of Ministers is diligently to be enquired of in Synods: Those that sin are to be rebuked of the Elders, and to be brought again into the way, if they be curable; or to be deposed, and like wolves driven away from the flock of the Lord, if they be incurable. That this manner of Synodical censure, namely of deposing Ministers from their office for some great scandal, is used in the republic of Zurick, Lavater is witness, in his book of the Rites and Ordinances of the Church of Zurick, Chap. 23. Surely they could not be of that mind, that Ecclesiastical Discipline ought to be exercised upon Delinquent Ministers only, and not also upon other rotten Members of the Church.
It can hardly bee doubted or called in question, but besides these, other learned and Godly Divines of those Churches were and are of the same minde herein, with those now cited; and indeed the very Confession of Faith of the Churches of Helvetia, Chap. 18. may bee an evidence hereof. But there ought to bee in the mean time a just Discipline amongst Ministers, for the doctrine and life of Ministers is diligently to be enquired of in Synodes: Those that sinne are to be rebuked of the Elders, and to be brought againe into the way, if they bee curable; or to be deposed, and like wolves driven away from the flock of the Lord, if they bee incurable. That this manner of Synodicall censure, namely of deposing Ministers from their office for some great scandall, is used in the republike of Zurick, Lavater is witnesse, in his book of the Rites and Ordinances of the Church of Zurick, Chap. 23. Surely they could not be of that minde, that Ecclesiasticall Discipline ought to bee exercised upon Delinquent Ministers onely, and not also upon other rotten Members of the Church.