A86000:225
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.
108.
It can hardly be doubted or called in question, but besides these, other learned and Godly Divines of those Churches were and are of the same mind herein, with those now cited; and indeed the very Confession of Faith of the Churches of Helvetia, Chap. 18. may be an evidence hereof. But there ought to be in the mean time a just Discipline amongst Ministers, for the doctrine and life of Ministers is diligently to be enquired of in Synods: Those that sin are to be rebuked of the Elders, and to be brought again into the way, if they be curable; or to be deposed, and like wolves driven away from the flock of the Lord, if they be incurable. That this manner of Synodical censure, namely of deposing Ministers from their office for some great scandal, is used in the republic of Zurick, Lavater is witness, in his book of the Rites and Ordinances of the Church of Zurick, Chap. 23. Surely they could not be of that mind, that Ecclesiastical Discipline ought to be exercised upon Delinquent Ministers only, and not also upon other rotten Members of the Church.
It can hardly be doubted or called in question, but besides these, other learned and Godly Divines of those Churches were and are of the same mind herein, with those now cited; and indeed the very Confession of Faith of the Churches of Helvetia, Chap. 18. may be an evidence hereof. But there ought to be in the mean time a just Discipline amongst Ministers, for the doctrine and life of Ministers is diligently to be enquired of in Synods: Those that sin are to be rebuked of the Elders, and to be brought again into the way, if they be curable; or to be deposed, and like wolves driven away from the floek of the Lord, if they be incurable. That this manner of Synodical censure, namely of deposing Ministers from their office for some great scandal, is used in the republike of Zurick, Lavater is witness, in his book of the Rites and Ordinances of the Church of Zurick, Chap. 23. Surely they could not be of that mind, that Ecclesiastical Discipline ought to be exercised upon Delinquent Ministers only, and not also upon other rotten Members of the Church.