The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• Advertisement
• The Divine Feudal Law Represented
• §1.
• §2.
• §3
• §4
• §5
• §6
• §7
• §8
• §9
• §10
• §11
• §12
• §13
• §14.
• §15
• §16
• §17
• §18
• §19
• §20
• §21
• §22
• §23
• §24.
• §25
• §26
• §27
• §28
• §29
• §30
• §31
• §32
• §33
• §34
• §35
• §36
• §37
• §38
• §39.
• §40
• §41
• §42
• §43
• §44
• §45
• §46
• §47
• §48
• §49
• §50
• §51
• §52
• §53
• §54
• §55
• §56
• §57
• §58
• §59
• §60
• §61
• §62
• §63
• §64
• §65
• §66
• §67
• §68
• §69
• §70
• §71
• §72
• §73
• §74
• §75
• §76
• §77
• §78
• §79
• §80
• §81
• §82
• §83
• §84
• §85
• §86
• §87
• §88
• §89
• §90
• §91
• §92
• §93
• §94

§6

Or Ecclesiastical.That which we call the Ecclesiastical Toleration, is, when those who differ about some Points of Religion do notwithstanding this hold each other for Members of the same particular Church, and maintain Communion with one another, and especially come together to the Lord’s Supper, which is wont to be accounted the principal Test of Concord among Christians. For as it is not every Errour in Religion that does directly, or by consequence, subvert the Foundation of the Faith; so it is not for every Errour that any Man should be cast out from the Communion of a particular Church, nor for every Errour in a Church has a Man sufficient Cause to withdraw and separate himself from it. It is evident that in the Primitive Church some of the Men, whose Writings still remain, did receive some Erroneous Opinions who yet were not, that we find, excluded for them from the Churches to which they belong’d. And certainly it was altogether an intemperate Zeal which drove from Communion those who would observe their Easter upon the 14th Day of the Month, forasmuch as that Matter did not concern any Article of Faith. And if we may profess the Truth, their Opinion who thought fit to do so was more agreeing to Reason, and the common receiv’d Custom of those who observe the Commemorations of any particular Transactions, than that which afterwards came to obtain in the Church. But also among the modern Parties of Christians we may observe, that they who do differ from others not in a few Things, and they who differ in Opinion not only from particular Persons, but from whole Congregations, are not for all this cast out from the Communion of their Churches, nor do they separate and divide themselves from such Communion.