Synod Assembly.

1. WE have had no national Synod since the Kingdom hath been settled, as now it is, only Provincial; and there will be this inconveniency, to call so many Divines together; ’twill be to put Power in their Hands, who are too apt to usurp it, as if the Laity were bound by their Determination. No, let the Laity consult with Divines on all sides, hear what they say, and make them∣selves Masters of their Reasons; as they do by any other profession, when they have a Difference before them. For Ex∣ample, Gold-smiths, they enquire of them, if such a Jewel be of such a Value, and such a Stone of such a Value, hear them, and then being rational Men judge them∣selves.

2. Why should you have a Synod, when you have a Convocation already, which is a Synod? Would you have a superfetation of another Synod? The Clergy of England when they cast off the Pope, submitted themselves to the Ci∣vil Power, and so have continued; but these challenge to be Jure Divino, and so to be above the Civil Power; these chal∣lenge Power to call before their Presby∣teries all Persons for all Sins directly a∣gainst the Law of God, as proved to be Sins by necessary Consequence. If you would buy Gloves, send for a Glover or two, not Glovers-Hall; consult with some Divines, not send for a Body.

3. There must be some Laymen in the Synod, to over-look the Clergy, lest they spoil the civil Work: Just as when the good Woman puts a Cat into the Milk-House to kill a Mouse, she sends her Maid to look after the Cat, lest the Cat should eat up the Cream.

4. In the Ordinance for the Assembly, the Lords and Commons go under the Names of learned, godly, and judicious Divines; there is no Difference put be∣twixt them, and the Ministers in the Context.

5. ’Tis not unusual in the Assembly to revoke their Votes, by reason they make so much haste, but ’tis that will make them scorn’d. You never heard of a Coun∣cil revok’d an Act of its own making; they have been wary in that, to keep up their Infallibility; if they did any thing, they took away the whole Council, and yet we would be thought Infallible as any Body. ’Tis not enough to say, the House of Commons revoke their Votes, for theirs are but Civil Truths, which they by agreement create, and uncreate, as they please: But the Truths the Synod deals in are Divine; and when they have voted a thing, if it be then true, ’twas true before; not true because they voted it, nor does it cease to be true, because they voted otherwise.

6. Subscribing in a Synod, or to the Articles of a Synod, is no such terrible thing as they make it; because, If I am of a Synod, ’tis agreed, either tacitely or expresly. That which the major part determines, the rest are involv’d in; and therefore I subscribe, though my own private Opinion be otherwise; and up∣on the same Ground, I may without scru∣ple subscribe to what those have deter∣min’d, whom I sent, though my private Opinion be otherwise, having respect to that which is the Ground of all assem∣blies, the Major part carries it.