The Westminster Assembly instructed the Houses of Parliament to see that Anabaptist and Antinomian errorists were restrained:
[…] (4) That all Ministers who teach or divulge, Baptizing of Infants to bee unlawful, The Morall law to be no rule for a Christian to walke by, That the Ministers of the Church of England are no true Ministers, & their churches no true churches, That Seperation from them is necessary, & churches to be gathered out of those churches, That power of Ordination belongeth to the people without officers, That fixed Assemblies & a settled ministry in them are not necessary, That liberty is to bee given to all opinions & sorts of Worship, & That the Civill Magistrate hath noe power to restrain them, or any other points of Anabaptisme & Antinomianisme, bee commanded to bring in the grounds & reasons of their opinions in a brief & compendious manner in writing under their hands unto the Assembly, or such as the Honourable Houses of Parliament shall appoint to be examined according to the Word of God: & in the mean time be commanded to forbear all teaching, printing, or other wise divulging of them. […]
Henry Robrough Scriba.
Adoniram Byfield scriba
The humble Advise of the Assembly of divines, for preventing the mischiefes that will arise from, & follow upon the divulging the dangerous opinions of Antinomianisme & Anabaptisme, 5 Sep. 1644 in The minutes and papers of the Westminster Assembly 1643-1652, ed. Chad VanDixhoorn (5 vols, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), v, 87-8.
Tags: Establishment principle, Theonomy, Westminster Assembly, Westminster Standards
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