v, 11; Isa. viii, 20; Amos iii, 3; 1 Cor. vi,
10; Heb. xii, 14; Rev. xxii, 14, 15; 2 Cor. vi, 17, 18; and conform to
the acts and practice of this church, in her best and purest times, in
excluding from her communion, and refusing to unite with any chargeable
as above.
Again, they hereby reject that false and ungodly principle and opinion,
That a God of infinite wisdom has left his professing people destitute
of any declaration of his will (which they are absolutely bound to
regard) concerning both the institution, administration and
qualifications of such persons as should administer these two distinct
ordinances, government, civil and ecclesiastical; or that these two
different species of government have not their foundation and
institution, as the ordinances of God, in his revealed will; but that
either (with the corrupt revolution church) he hath left the government
of his house a matter of indifference, and the pattern thereof to be
moulded by the discretion of the wise men of this world, and according
to the corrupt will and fluctuating inclination of the people; or, with
their public resolution-brethren, the _Seceders_, exchanging the clear
scriptural and covenanted basis of civil government, with the obscure
foundation of the law and light of nature, or the more dissolute basis
of mere election and acknowledgment of whomsoever the _primores regni_,
though never so wicked and licentious, choose and set up as magistrates.
Pages:
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441