An enquiry into the original, nature, institution, power, order and communion of evangelical churches.…

The first was, that the Scripture, the Word of God is a perfect Rule of Faith and Religious Worship; so as that nothing ought to be admitted which is repugnant unto it in its general Rule or especial Prohibitions, nothing imposed that is not prescribed therein, but that every one is at liberty to refuse and reject any thing of that kind. This they all contended for, and confirmed their Assertion by the express Testimonies of the Writers of the Primitive Churches. To prove this to have been their Principle in their Separation from the Church of Rome were to light, as they say, a Candle in the Sun. It were easy to fill up a Volume with Testimonies of it. After a while this Principle began to be weakened, when the Interest of men made them except from this Rule, things of outward Order, with some Rites and Ceremonies, the ordaining whereof, they pleaded to be left unto Churches as they saw Good. Hereby this Principle, I say, was greatly ⟨p. 292⟩weakened. For no certain bounds could ever be assigned unto those things that are exempted from the Regulation of the Scripture. And the same Plea might be managed for many of the Popish Orders and Ceremonies that were rejected, as forcibly as for them that were retained. And whereas all the Reformed Churches agreed to abide by this Principle in Matters of Faith, there fell out an admirable Harmony in their confessions thereof. But leaving the Necessity of attending unto this Rule, in the Matter of Order, Ceremonies, Rites and Modes of Worship, with the state of Churches, in their Rule and Polity, those Differences and Divisions ensued amongst them, which continue unto this day. But this Persuasion in some places made a farther Progress, namely, that it was lawful to impose on the Consciences and Practises of men, such things in Religious Worship, provided that they concerned outward Order, Rites, Rule and Ceremonies, as are no where prescribed in the Scripture, and that on severe Penalties Ecclesiastical and Civil. This almost utterly destroyed the great fundamental Principle of the Reformation, whereon the first Reformers justified their Separation from the Church of Rome.

The first was, that the Scripture, the Word of God is a perfect Rule of Faith and Religious Worship; so as that nothing ought to be admitted which is repugnant unto it in its general Rule or especial Prohibitions, nothing imposed that is not prescribed therein, but that every one is at liberty to refuse and reject any thing of that kind. This they all contended for, and confirmed their Assertion by the express Testimonies of the Writers of the Primitive Churches. To prove this to have been their Principle in their Separation from the Church of Rome were to light, as they say, a Candle in the Sun. It were easie to fill up a Volume with Testimonies of it. After a while this Principle began to be weakned, when the Interest of men made them except from this Rule, things of outward Order, with some Rites and Ceremonies, the ordaining whereof, they pleaded to be left unto Churches as they saw Good. Hereby this Principle, I say, was greatly