§. 30. Quest. And may we not for peace sake, grant them as much in point of Jurisdiction, as of Ordination, and Consent to do nothing without Necessity, but when the President is one, and doth Consent? Answ. Either by Jurisdiction you mean Law making, or Executive Government. The first belongs to none but Christ, in the substance of his Worship; and the Circumstances no man may Universally and Unchangeably determine of but pro re nata, according to emergent occasions, the Magistrate may make Laws for them, and the Pastors may make Agreements for Concord about them: but none should determine of them without need: and therefore here is no work for Legislators (the Usurpers that have grievously wronged the Church.) And for Executive Government, either it is over the People, or over the Pastors. To give a Negative voice to the President of an Association of the Pastors of many Churches, in Governing the People of a single Church, is to set up a new Office (a fixed Pastor of many Churches) and to overthrow Government, and introduce the noxious sort of Prelacy, which for my part, I intend not to be guilty of. And for proper Government of the Pastors, I know none but God and Magistrates that have that Power. Every Bishop, saith Cyprian, and the Council of Carthage, hath Power ⟨p. 305⟩of his own will, and is responsible for his Actions to God, and none of us are Episcopi Episcoporum, Bishops of Bishops. But there is a Communion among Pastors and Churches to be exercised, and so an avoiding or rejecting from Communion: and this some call (improperly) a Government. And in this, for my part, I should consent, where peace doth require it, that we will not agree upon the rejecting of any Pastor of our Association (no more then to the Accepting or Ordaining of them) without the President, but in cases of Necessity: and that just on the terms expressed about Ordination.
§. 30. Quest. And may we not for peace sake, grant them as much in point of Iurisdiction, as of Ordination, and Consent to do nothing without Necessity, but when the President is one, and doth Consent? Answ. Either by Iurisdiction you mean Law making, or Executive Government. The first belongs to none but Christ, in the substance of his Worship; and the Circumstances no man may Vniversally and Vnchangeably determine of but pro re nata, according to emergent occasions, the Magistrate may make Laws for them, and the Pastors may make Agreements for Concord about them: but none should determine of them without need: and therefore here is no work for Legislators (the Usurpers that have grievously wronged the Church.) And for Executive Government, either it is over the People, or over the Pastors. To give a Negative voice to the President of an Association of the Pastors of many Churches, in Governing the People of a single Church, is to set up a new Office (a fixed Pastor of many Churches) and to overthrow Government, and introduce the noxious sort of Prelacy, which for my part, I intend not to be guilty of. And for proper Government of the Pastors, I know none but God and Magistrates that have that Power. Every Bishop, saith Cyprian, and the Council of Carthage, hath Power ⟨p. 305⟩of his own will, and is responsible for his Actions to God, and none of us are Episcopi Episcoporum, Bishops of Bishops. But there is a Communion among Pastors and Churches to be exercised, and so an avoiding or rejecting from Communion: and this some call (improperly) a Government. And in this, for my part, I should consent, where peace doth require it, that we will not agree upon the rejecting of any Pastor of our Association (no more then to the Accepting or Ordaining of them) without the President, but in cases of Necessity: and that just on the terms exprest about Ordination.
