31. Therefore, by reason of the danger of that which is called clavis errans, or a wrong key; and that it may not be permitted to particular churches to err or sin licentiously, and lest any man's cause be overthrown and perish, who in a particular church had perhaps the same men both his adversaries and his judges; also that common business, which do belong to many churches, together with the more weighty and difficult controversies (the deciding whereof in the consistories of praticular churches is not safe to be adventured upon) may be handled and determined by a common council of presbyteries; finally, that the governors of particular churches may impart help mutually one to another against the cunning and subtile enemies of the truth, and may join their strength together (such as it is) by an holy combination, and that the church may be as a camp of an army well ordered, lest while every one striveth singly all of them be subdued and overcome, or lest by reason of the scarcity of prudent and godly counsellors (in the multitude of whom is safety) the affairs of the church be undone: for all these considerations particular churches must be subordinate to classical presbyteries and synods.
32. Wherefore it is not lawful to particular churches, or, as commonly they are called, parochial, either to decline the authority of classes or synods, where they are lawfully settled, or may be had (much less to withdraw [pg 5-016] themselves from that authority, if they have once acknowledged it), or to refuse such lawful ordinances or decrees of the classes or synods as, being agreeable to the word of God, are with authority imposed upon them. Acts xv. 2, 6, 22-24, 28, 29; xvi. 4.
33. Although synods assemble more seldom, classes and consistories of particular churches more frequently, yet that synods, both provincial and national, assemble at set and ordinary times, as well as classes and parochial consistories, is very expedient, and for the due preservation of church policy and discipline, necessary. Sometimes, indeed, it is expedient they be assembled occasionally, that the urgent necessity of the church may be the more speedily provided for, namely, when such a business happeneth, which, without great danger, cannot be put off till the appointed time of the synod.
34. But that, besides occasional synods, ordinary synods be kept at set times, is most profitable, not only that they may discuss and determine the more difficult ecclesiastical causes coming before them, whether by the appeal of some person aggrieved, or by the hesitation or doubting of inferior assemblies (for such businesses very often fall out), but also that the state of the churches whereof they have the care, being more certainly and frequently searched and known, if there be anything wanting or amiss in their doctrine, discipline or manners, or anything worthy of punishment, the slothful labourers in the vineyard of the Lord may be made to shake off the spirit of slumber and slothfulness, and be stirred up to the attending and fulfilling more diligently their calling, and not suffered any longer to sleep and snore in their office; the stragglers and wanderers may be reduced to the way; the untoward and stiff-necked, which scarce, or very hardly, suffer the yoke of discipline, as also unquiet persons, who devise new and hurtful things, may be reduced to order: finally, whatsoever doth hinder the more quick and efficacious course of the gospel may be discovered and removed.
35. It is too, too manifest (alas for it!) that there are those who with unwearied diligence, do most carefully labour that they may oppress the liberties and rights of synods, and may take away from them all liberty of consulting of things and matters [pg 5-017] ecclesiastical, at least of determining thereof (for they well know how much the union and harmony of churches may make against their designs): but so much the more it concerneth the orthodox churches to know, defend and preserve, this excellent liberty granted to them by divine right, and so to use it, that imminent dangers, approaching evils, urging grievances, scandals growing up, schisms rising, heresies creeping in, errors spreading, and strifes waxing hot, may be corrected and taken away, to the glory of God, and the edification and peace of the church.
36. Beside provincial and national synods, an œcumenical (so called from οἰκουμένη, that is from the habitable world,) or more truly, a general, or, if you will, an universal synod, if so it lie free and rightly constituted, and no other commissioners but orthodox churches be admitted (for what communion is there of light with darkness, of righteousness with unrighteousness, or of the temple of God with idols); such a synod is of special utility, peradventure also such a synod is to be hoped for, surely it is to be wished that, for defending the orthodox faith, both against Popery and other heresies, as also for propagating it to those who are without, especially the Jews, a more strait and more firm consociation may be entered into. For the unanimity of all the churches, as in evil it is of all things most hurtful, so on the contrary side, in good it is most pleasant, most profitable, and most effectual.
37. Unto the universal synod also (when it may be had) is to be referred the judgment of controversies, not of all, but of those which are controversiæ juris, controversies of right; neither yet of all these, but of the chief and most weighty controversies of the orthodox faith, or of the most hard and unusual cases of conscience. Of the controversies of fact there is another and different consideration to be had; for besides that it would be a great inconvenience that plaintives, persons accused, and witnesses, be drawn from the most remote churches to the general or universal council, the visible communion itself of all the churches (on which the universal council is built, and whereupon, as on a foundation, it leaneth) is not so much of company, fellowship, or conversation, as of religion and doctrine. All true churches of the world do indeed [pg 5-018] profess the same true religion and faith, but there is beside this a certain commixture and conjunction of the churches of the same nation, as to a more near fellowship, and some acquaintance, conversing and companying together, which cannot be said of all the churches throughout the habitable world.
38. And for this cause, as in doctrinal controversies, which are handled by theologists and casuists, and in those which belong to the common state of the orthodox churches, the national synod is subordinate and subjected to the universal lawfully-constituted synod, and from the national to the oecumenical synod (when there is a just and weighty cause) an appeal is open: so there is no need that the appeals of those who complain of injury done to them through the exercise of discipline in this or that church, should go beyond the bounds of the national synod; but it is most agreeable to reason that they should rest and acquiesce within those bounds and borders; and that the ultimate judgment of such mutters be in the national synod, unless the thing itself be so hard and of so great moment, that the knot be justly thought worthy of a greater decider; in which case the controversy which is carried to the universal synod is rather of an abstract general theological proposition than of the particular or individual case.
39. Furthermore, the administration of the ecclesiastic power in consistories, classes and synods, doth not at all tend to weaken in anywise, hurt or diminish, the authority of the civil magistrate, much less to take it away or destroy it; yea, rather, by it a most profitable help cometh to the magistrate, forasmuch as by the bond of religion men's consciences are more straitly tied unto him. There has been, indeed, fantastical men, who, under pretence and cloak of Christian liberty, would abolish and cast out laws and judgments, orders also, degrees and honours, out of the commonwealth, and have been bold to reckon the function of the magistrate armed with the sword among evil things and unlawful: but the reformed churches do renounce and detest these dreams, and do most harmoniously and most willingly confess and acknowledge it to be God's will that the world be governed by laws and policy, and that he himself hath appointed the civil magistrate, and hath delivered to him the sword to the protection and praise of good men, [pg 5-019] but for punishment and revenge on the evil, that by this bridle, men's vices and faults may be restrained, whether these are committed against the first or second table.
40. The reformed churches believe also, and openly confess, the power and authority of emperors over their empires, of kings over their kingdoms, of princes and dukes over their dominions, and of other magistrates or states over their commonwealths and cities, to be the ordinances of God himself appointed as well to the manifestation of his own glory, as to the singular profit of mankind: and withal, that by reason of the will of God himself, revealed in his word, we must not only suffer and be content that those do rule which are set over their own territories, whether by hereditary or by elective right, but also to love them, fear them, and with all reverence and honour embrace them as the ambassadors and ministers of the most high and good God, being in his stead, and preferred for the good of their subjects, to pour out prayers for them, to pay tributes to them, and in all business of the commonwealth which is not against the word of God, to obey their laws and edicts.