an; neither are any human commands further binding upon
the consciences of men, than they are agreeable unto, and founded upon
the revealed will of God, whether in matters of faith or practice. And
although the Lord Jesus Christ has purchased a glorious liberty unto
believers from sin, and all the bitter fruits thereof, and of access to
a throne of grace with boldness; and has procured unto his church
freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, with a more abundant
communication of gospel influences: yet, inasmuch as conscience is the
rule ruled, not the rule, ruling, none can, without manifest sin, upon
pretense of conscience or Christian liberty, cherish any forbidden lust
in their souls, nor are left at freedom to reject any of the divine
ordinances instituted in the word, to change or corrupt their scriptural
institution, by immixing human inventions therewith, or in the least
deviating from the punity thereof. And that therefore, all who vent or
maintain tenets or opinions, contrary to the established principles of
Christianity, whether in the matter of doctrine, divine worship, or
practice in life, which are contrary to, and inconsistent with the
analogy of faith, and power of true godliness, or destructive to that
pure peace and good order established by Christ in his church, are
accountable unto the church; and upon conviction, ought to be proceeded
against, by inflicting ecclesiastical censures or civil pains, in a way
agreeable unto the divine determination in the word concerning such
offenses.

And further, they declare, that it is most wicked, and what manifestly
strikes against the sovereign authority of God, for any power on earth
to pretend to tolerate, and, by sanction of civil law, to give license
to men to publish and propagate with impunity, whatever errors,
heresies, and damnable doctrines, Satan, and their own corrupt and
blinded understandings, may prompt them to believe and embrace;
toleration being destructive of all true religion, and of that liberty
wherewith Christ has made his people free; and the great end thereof,
which is, "That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we may
serve the Lord--in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our
lives." Agreeable to James iv, 12; Rom. xiv, 4; Acts iv, 19, and v, 29;
1 Cor. vii, 23; Matth. xxiii, 9; 2 John 10, 11; 2 Cor. i, 24; Matth. xv,
9; Col. ii, 20, 22, 23; Gal. ii, 4, 5, and v, 1, 13; Isa. viii, 20; Acts
xvii, 11; Hosea v, 11; 1