A52591:301
A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches…
A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches in England agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12, 1658.
London: printed by John Field, 1659
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.
II.
It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a Magistrate, when called thereunto: in the management whereof, as they ought especially to maintain Justice and Peace, according to the wholesome Laws of each Commonwealth; so for that end they may lawfully now ⟨p. 42⟩under the new Testament wage war upon just and necessary occasion.
It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a Magistrate, when called thereunto: in the management whereof, as they ought especially to maintain Justice and Peace, according to the wholsome Laws of each Commonwealth; so for that end they may lawfully now ⟨p. 42⟩under the new Testament wage war upon just and necessary occasion.
III.
Although the Magistrate is bound to encourage, promote, and protect the professors and profession of the Gospel, and to manage and order civil administrations in a due subserviency to the interest of Christ in the world, and to that end to take care that men of corrupt minds and conversations do not licentiously publish and divulge Blasphemies and Errors, in their own nature, subverting the faith, and inevitably destroying the souls of them that receive them: Yet in such differences about the Doctrines of the Gospel, or ways of the worship of God, as may befall men exercising a good conscience, manifesting it in their conversation, and holding the foundation, not disturbing others in their ways or worship that differ from them; there is no warrant for the Magistrate under the Gospel to abridge them of their liberty.