Five disputations of church-government and worship

Note also tha• it is one thing to prescribe these matters in a direct Regimental Respect, and that belongeth to him upon the Place ▪ and its another thing to prescribe them for common Union or Concord among many Churches, and that belongs to a Synod, (of which a•on.)

Note also tha• it is one thing to prescribe these matters in a direct Regimental Respect, and that belongeth to him upon the Place ▪ and its another thing to prescribe them for common Vnion or Con•ord among many Churches, and that belongs to a Synod, (of which a•on.)

And it is most certain by sad experience, that scarce any thing hath broken the uni•y and peace of the Church more, than unnecessary determinations pretended to be for its unity and peace. Could men have been content to have made Gods Laws the centre and touchstone of the Churches Unity, all had been well: but when they must make Canons for this Vesture, and that Gesture, and the other Ceremony, and determine in what words ⟨p. 10⟩all men shall pray, and how many words he shall say, or how long he shall be, and so make standing Laws upon mutable circumstances, and this without any necessity at all, but merely to domineer, as if they had been themselves ordained and entrusted with Gods worship and mens souls; such sottish Presbyters, that know not how to speak or do any thing but as it is prescribed them, nor how to carry themselves soberly or reverendly without being obliged which way to bow, and when and how oft, with the like. Unnecessary things made Necessary have destroyed the Churches Peace; and so blind are the Authors of it, that yet they will not see their error, though the cries, and groans, and blood of the Churches have proclaimed it so long. The Church History of these one thousand and three hundred years at least doth tell us that it is the Church Governors by their too much business and overdoing in such ways, even by too bold and busy determinations about doctrines or Ceremonies, that have broken all in pieces and caused that confusion, dissension and seemingly remediless divisions in the Church.