“The PASTOR procureth the peace of the kirk by following after the things which make for peace; Rom .xiv.; for by the discipline and assemblies of the kirk he preserveth verity, without which there is either no unity, or such unity as is but a conspiracy, and resisteth heresy, the mother of the greatest divisions. So long as our assemblies had their liberty, there could arise no heresy among us; if it had broken out in a parish, a consistory or presbytery would have borne it down; or if it had proceeded further, then the synod, or if it had not been able, the national assembly, would have suppressed it. For the same reason the Kirk of France, which was nearest to ours, hath been free of heresy. In the low countries, if the kirks had enjoyed the liberty of their assemblies, which they wanted for a long time, Arminianism had neither troubled them nor their neighbours. He never can find in his heart to urge or enforce unprofitable and untimely ceremonies upon the kirk, if it were for no other cause but that they have been the apples of contention, and the cause of many schisms, and will choose rather, with Jonah, to redeem the quietness and safety of the kirk with the loss of himself, than for his own particular ends to raise the smallest tempest that may peril her peace; he carrieth himself no otherwise in his ministry than becometh the humble servant of the kirk, and feareth to be affected with Diotrephes’ ambitious humour of aspiring above his brethren, which is a special preservative of peace: he studieth to preserve holiness, without which there can be no sound nor wholesome peace; he is ever at war with that which is contrary to holiness, and sendeth away all scandalous livers with the workers of iniquity, that peace may be upon the Israel of God, Psal. xxv.”
David Calderwood, The Pastor & the Prelate (1628)
Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?
West Port Experiment 
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