Tbe HISTORY of the PuRITANs. VoL. H. K. Charles I. fatisfaCl:ion of the foreign churches, under the. title of, articles if religion ~ approved and,P~!Jed by both boufes if parliament, cifter advice had witb an Article.< of q!Jembly if dzvmes called together by them for that purpoje. The parlia. ~ijcipline re- m~nt not thinking it proper to call it a confe!Jion if faith, becaufe the fec– J5•E!_:d. f tions did not begin with the words I confefs; nor to annex matters of a,oy con . · . pref. p. 1 8, church governmen t, about whtch they were not agreed, to doC!rinal ar. 19. tic/es; th£~~- chapters therefore, which.relate to difcipline, as they now fl:and in the affembly's confeilion, were not printed by order of the houfe b~!Lr~committed, and at la!l: laid afide; as the whole thirtieth chapter, qfchurch cenjures, and if the power ofthe keys; the thirty-firfl: chapter, if Jjnods and councils, by whom to be called, and if what force in their de– trees and determination;; a great part of the twenty-fourth chapter, of marriage and divorce, which they referred to the laws of the land; and the fourth paragraph of the twentieth chapter, which determines what opinions and parties dijturb the peace if the church, and how fuch dffturbers ought to be proceeded againft by the cenfures of the church, and punijhed by But the the civil magiflrate. Thefe propofitions, in which the very life and foul whole rwei- of preibytery confi!l:s, never were approved by the englifh parliament, ~ed by the nor had the force of a law in this country: But the whole confe!llon, as ,cots ajfem- • f h tr. bl b . {i . S l d . d' J blyandpar-Hcame romt eauem y, emg entmto cotan, was1mme lateyap- /iament. proved by the general alfembly and parliament of that kingdom, as the Sa7y conf. efl:ablifhed doctrine and difcipline of their kirk ; and thus it has been pub– pre ·P· 20 ' lifhed to the world ever fince, though the chapter abovementioned, relating to d~fcip!ine, received no parliamentary fanCl:ion in England; never– thelefs, as the entire conjf/Jion was agreed to by an affembly of engli(h diAppendix, vines, I have given it a pl.1ce in the appendix. · . N" ll. Nor is it to be fuppofed, that the confe!Jz'on if faith itfe!f, which determines.fo many abfhufe points of divinity, fhould have the unanimous and hearty affent of the whole affembly er parliament: for tbo~gb all the divines were in the anti-arminian fcheme, yet feme had a greater la– titude than others. 1find in my MS. the diffent of feveral members a– gainfl: feme expreilions relating to reprobation, to ~he imputation qf the ac– tive aJ well aJ pajfive obedience if Chrifl, and to feveral paffages in the chap– ters of liberty if conJCimce and church difcipline; but the confe!Jion, as far as it related to artides if .faith, paired the affembly and parliament by a very great majority. Cenfum of · Various cenfures have been paffed by learned men upon this laboured i.t. performance: fome have loaded it with undeferved reproaches; and o– thers, perhaps, have advanced its reputation too high. Mr. Collier con– demns it, for determining in favour of the morality of the tabbath ; for pronouncing the pope to be antichrifl: ; and for maintaining the calvinimz ~~.ifi. P• rigors. of akjolute prediflination, irrejijtible grace,. and the impotency oj ma.n 11 's ,Wt i
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