A86000:192
A form for Church government and ordination of ministers, contained in CXI propositions, propounded…
A form for Church government and ordination of ministers, contained in CXI propositions, propounded to the late General Assembly at Edinburgh, 1647. Together with an Act concerning Erastianism, independency, and liberty of conscience. Published by authority.A form for Church government and ordination of ministers, contained in CXI propositions, propounded to the late Generall Assembly at Edinburgh, 1647. Together with an Act concerning Erastianisme, independencie, and liberty of conscience. Published by authority.
London: printed for Robert Bostock, 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.
92.
But as there is much indeed to be given to the demand of the Magistrate; so is there here a two-fold caution to be used: For first, notwithstanding of a future revision, it is necessary that the former sentence of the Synod, whether concerning the administration of Ecclesiastic Discipline, or against any Heresy, be forthwith put in execution; least by lingering and making of delays, the evil of the Church take deeper root, and the gangrene spread and creep further: and least violence be done to the Consciences of Ministers, if they be constrained to impart the signs and seals of the Covenant of Grace to dogs and swine, that is, to unclean persons, wallowing in the mire of ungodliness; and least subtle men abuse such interims or intervals, so as that Ecclesiastical Discipline altogether decay, and the very decrees of Synods be accounted as cobwebs, which none feareth to break down.
But as there is much indeed to be given to the demand of the Magistrate; so is there here a two-fold caution to be used: For first, notwithstanding of a future revision, it is necessary that the former sentence of the Synod, whether concerning the administration of Ecclesiastick Discipline, or against any Heresie, be forthwith put in execution; least by lingering and making of delays, the evil of the Church take deeper root, and the gangreen spread and creep further: and least violence be done to the Consciences of Ministers, if they be constrained to impart the signs and seals of the Covenant of Grace to dogs and swine, that is, to unclean persons, wallowing in the mire of ungodliness; and least subtile men abuse such interims or intervals, so as that Ecclesiasticall Discipline altogether decay, and the very decrees of Synods be accounted as cobwebs, which none feareth to break down.