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The Presbyteriall Government is not in the nature of it any invention of man, but an ordinance of Christ; nor in the execution of it to be stated by the will of man, but only by the sure Word of Prophecy, the Sacred Scriptures. This Government allowes not of one church-officer at all, not of one ruling-assembly made up of those officers, not of one censure or act of power to be done by any officer or assembly, nor of one ordinance to be managed in the church of God, but what are grounded upon, and warranted by the Word of God. This Government allowes no execution of any part thereof, neither in substantial nor circumstantials, but according tho the particular, or at least the generall rules of Scripture respectively.

MINISTERS OF LONDON, Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici, London, 1646, the preface.