Two discourses showing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of…Two discourses shewing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of…

All that a Council can do, is to advise the particular Church to suspend their delinquent Members if their is cause for it, but it belongs to no Council in the World to Exercise that Authority. Moreover, to allow unto half the Ministers in a Council, a Negative Voice, is not Congregational, nor yet Presbyterial. That Great ⟨p. vi⟩Light in Connecticut Colony, the for ever famous Mr. Thomas Hooker, has illuminated those Churches with better Principles. In his Elaborate and Accurate Survey of Church Discipline, part 4. p. 46. 47 He proves that in Councils or Synods, all have equal power, nor do any act there as Officers but as sent by their Churches, nor has any Minister a right to Vote in an Ecclesiastical Council, without a Mission from his Church. In the Reformed Churches abroad, there is no Negative on their Councils, but the Vote of the Majority is Conclusive: Which has occasioned some Prelatic Writers to Speak reproachfully of them, because the Majority of their Synods consisting of those they call Lay Men, they may carry it against the other. For their Synods consist of Deacons as well as of Lay Elders and Pastors. Nor will they admit a Pastor Except he brings One or more with him, that is not such. As may be seen in the French Protestants Discipline. Chap. 5. Art. 2. And in Mr. Quick's Synodicon Passim. In the time of the Reforming Parliament, there was a Provincial Synod settled at London, whose Constitution was such, as that their acts would have been valid although' not so much as One Minister had consented therewith. If we change our Congregational Principles, I am abundantly persuaded that we shall not ad Meliora transire, change for the better. The words of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Urian Oaks, in his Election Sermon, deserve to be well thought on, He says concerning those Godly Men, who were the first that Planted Churches in this part of the World, That GOD did more for them, than for any People in the World, in showing them the Pattern ⟨p. vii⟩of His House, and the true Scriptural Way of Church Government and Administration. GOD was certainly in a more than Ordinary way of favour Present with His Servants, in laying our Foundations, and in Settling the way of Church Order, according to the Will and Appointment of CHRIST.

All that a Council can do, is to advise the particular Church to suspend their delinquent Members if their is cause for it, but it belongs to no Council in the World to Exercise that Authority. Moreover, to allow unto half the Ministers in a Council, a Negative Voice, is not Congregational, nor yet Presbyterial. That Great