, surely he stumbleth against the same stone, seeing he weigheth not
the matter with an equal balance, for the same may, in like sort, fall
back and be cast upon parliaments, or any supreme senate of a
commonwealth, for who seeth not the judgment of the supreme civil senate
to be nothing more infallible, yea, also, in matters of faith and
ecclesiastical discipline, more apt and prone to error (as being less
accustomed to sacred studies) than the judgment of the national synod?
What medicines then, or what sovereign plasters shall be had, which may be
fit for the curing and healing of the errors and miscarriages of the
supreme magistrates and senate? The very like, and beside all this, other
and more effectual medicines by which the errors of national synods may be
healed, are possible to be had.

89. There wanteth not a divine medicine and sovereign balm in Gilead, for
although the popish opinion of the infallibility of counsels be worthily
rejected and exploded, yet it is not in vain that Christ hath promised he
shall be present with an assembly which indeed and in truth meeteth in his
name with such an assembly verily he useth to be present, by a spiritual
aid and assistance of his own Spirit, to uphold the falling, or to raise
up the fallen. Whence it is that divers times the errors of former synods
are discovered and amended by the latter; sometimes, also, the second or
afterthoughts of one and the same synod are the wiser and the better.

90. Furthermore, the line of ecclesiastical subordination is longer and
further stretched than the line of civil subordination; for a national
synod must be subordinate and subject to an universal synod in the manner
aforesaid, whereas yet there is no oecumenical parliament or general civil
court acknowledged, unto which the supreme civil senate in this or that
nation should be subject. Finally, neither is the church altogether
destitute of nearer remedies whether an universal council may be had or
not.

91. For the national synod ought to declare, and that with greatest
reverence, to the magistrate, the grounds of their sentence, and the
reasons of their proceedings, when he demandeth or inquireth into the
same, and desireth to be satisfied; but if the magistrate nevertheless do
dissent, or cannot, by contrary reasons (which may be brought, if he
please), move the synod to alter their judgment, yet may he require and
procure that the matter be again debated and canvassed in anot