I shall add a few Caveats. 1. Take heed of a various management of matters of Religion, to the advantage of the present postures and condition of your Civil Affairs. The things of Christ should be as Josephs Sheaf, to which all other should bow. When they are made to cringe and bend to mens Policies, they are no longer the things of Christ: All Gods Truths are Eternal and Unchangeable by men: Give them all at once the sovereignty of your Souls, and have not the least thought of making them bend to serve your worldly ends, but cleave to the Truth of the Precepts, and live by the Truth of the Promises; for ⟨p. 13⟩performance whereof, the God of Truth hath engaged his All-sufficiency. 2. Take heed and beware that you deprive not any Instituted Christian Church, walking according to Gospel Rules, of the Power and Privileges which Christ hath purchased for them by his precious blood, and given unto them, Mat. 16.19. God calls Civil Rulers to protect and preserve such Churches; if he hath given them liberty, and you subject them to bondage; if he hath given them power in their proper concernments within themselves, and you countenance and uphold others to exercise power over the Churches, in such things to whom Christ never gave such power; you will have a sad reckoning. Remember Jephthah's Argument, against the encroachments of the Ammonites upon the Rights of Israel, Judg. 11.14. 3. Avoid carefully imposing upon the Churches any thing that Christ hath not put upon them, viz. 1. Mens Opinions, especially when they are such as prevailed in an hour of Temptation, though consented to by the major part of a Topical Synod, yet disliked by some of themselves, and by other godly Ministers, both in this Country, and in other Countries, so that they are things Controverted and under Dispute. Impose not such things upon Churches, lest Contentions arise in the Churches about Opinions, which are no part of the Faith once given to the Saints, for which we are called to contend earnestly, Jude 3. 2. A standing Council, for which we find no warrant in the New-Testament, nor Example in the Primitive Churches, nor in Succeeding Ages, for some hundred years after Christ. Nor is it safe for the Churches, which are thereby subjected under an undue Power out of the Church, which under a pretence — of helping the Church with their Light, bereave them of their Power;
I shall add a few Caveats. 1. Take heed of a various management of matters of Religion, to the advantage of the present postures and condition of your Civil Affairs. The things of Christ should be as Josephs Sheaf, to which all other should bow. When they are made to cringe and bend to mens Policies, they are no longer the things of Christ: All Gods Truths are Eternal and Unchangeable by men: Give them all at once the soveraignty of your Souls, and have not the least thought of making them bend to serve your worldly ends, but cleave to the Truth of the Precepts, and live by the Truth of the Promises; for ⟨p. 13⟩performance whereof, the God of Truth hath engaged his Alsufficiency. 2. Take heed and beware that you deprive not any Instituted Christian Church, walking according to Gospel Rules, of the Power and Priviledges which Christ hath purchased for them by his precious blood, and given unto them, Mat. 16.19. God calls Civil Rulers to protect and preserve such Churches; if he hath given them liberty, and you subject them to bondage; if he hath given them power in their proper concernments within themselves, and you countenance and uphold others to exercise power over the Churches, in such things to whom Christ never gave such puwer; you will have a sad reckoning. Remember Jeptah's Argument, against the encroachments of the Amonites upon the Rights of Israel, Judg. 11.14. 3. Avoid carefully imposing upon the Churches any thing that Christ hath not put upon them, viz. 1. Mens Opinions, especially when they are such as prevailed in an hour of Temptation, though consented to by the major part of a Topical Synod, yet disliked by some of themselves, and by other godly Ministers, both in this Countrey, and in other Countries, so that they are things Controverted and under Dispute. Impose not such things upon Churches, lest Contentions arise in the Churches about Opinions, which are no part of the Faith once given to the Saints, for which we are called to contend earnestly, Jude 3. 2. A standing Council, for which we find no warrant in the New-Testament, nor Example in the Primitive Churches, nor in Succeeding Ages, for some hundred years after Christ. Nor is it safe for the Churches, which are thereby subjected under an undue Power out of the Church, which under a pretence — of helping the Church with their Light, bereave them of their Power;
