After much argument, it was settled, by a great majority of voices, that
"Episcopius and some other Remonstrants should within a fortnight,
appear before the Synod, as the sovereign ecclesiastical tribunal of the
United States."
The Remonstrants and the advocates of their cause protested against this
proceeding: they called in question the authority of the Synod to sit as
judges upon them, or even to decide any point of doctrine definitively:
they averred it contrary to the evangelical liberty professed and taught
by the first Reformers. Every friend to the true principles of the
reformation must admit the force of this objection.
The _5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Sessions_
of the intermediate fortnight, were consumed in debates upon a projected
new translation of the Scriptures; _the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th,
19th, 20th_ and _21st Sessions_ were employed in discussions,
upon a new catechism, and other ecclesiastical arrangements.
[Sidenote: CHAP. VI.
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