The Westminster Confession says:"It belongeth to synods and councils, ministerially, to determine controversies of faith, ... which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission, NOT ONLY FOR THEIR AGREEMENT WITH THE WORD, but also for the power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God, appointed thereunto in his Word." (Chapter 31, Section 3) Pause a moment. Think. How would you react if your "Reverend" minister told you that, "we at First Presbyterian Church worship in an orderly manner, NOT only because this is in agreement with the Word of God, but ALSO because I have decreed and determined this to be so. As the minister of this church, I am a power and an ordinance of God, and you are to receive my ministerial determinations with reverence and submission"? You probably would not accept his logic. But how would you react if fifty, or one hundred, or three hundred and fifty, of those "Reverend" pastors gathered themselves together, and called themselves a "synod" or an "assembly of divines"? Well, if you are reading this, and you are a Presbyterian, then you have allowed your conscience to be bound not by the Word of God alone, but by the authority of self-appointed "divines". You may be shocked to hear this, but the men at the Westminster Assembly actually considered themselves to be co-authorities with the Word of God. Read their very own words: "it belongs to [us] ... to determine controversies of faith ... which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission, NOT only for their agreement with the Word, but ALSO [because we have decreed so, as a] power whereby they are made." Do Presbyterians recognize the Pope? No, but the spirit of the Papacy still dwells in the hearts of Presbyterians. Indeed, the pretended Reformed Churches and their Mother of Rome, are like mathematical asymptotes, which, though approaching nearer and nearer to one another can never actually meet. Yet, true believers have hope -- the Word of God. The Word of God, recorded for our learning, in the Scripture of the Old and New Testaments, exclusive of all human traditions and inventions whatsoever, is the one, only, absolute, perpetual, universal rule, the infallible standard of truth and righteousness of doctrine and practice, to all men. By this very Word we shall be judged at the last day. To this Word, therefore, our principles, confession, and life, ought to be conformed; and if they do not come up to the divine purity of the mind of Christ declared in them, and stand the touch-stone of the present truth, they will undoubtedly condemn us as men unregenerate, and without the one faith of God's people. This faith, being of God's operation, and coming by hearing of His Word, is precisely as pure and precious in every individual child of God, converted by God's own will through the Word of truth, as it was in the apostles themselves. These heaven-inspired helpers, and patterns of the faith and joy of all saints were authorized, by Him who sent them, to say to their fellow-heirs of the grace of eternal life, "So we preach, and so you believed."(1Co15:11) In reading the Old Testament, we must first know, "that every prophecy of Scripture did not come into being of its own interpretation."(2Pet1:20). Therefore, the prophets did not speak of their own private spirits, according to human wisdom, but by the divine Spirit, who publicly by their mouths declared the things which were to come. Thus, where any interpretation was needed, it has belonged to the Holy Spirit alone to give the interpretation, which he did publicly by the apostles. We know that any churchmen, Papist, or Protestant, with their public creeds, councils, synods, assemblies, acts, and all their Babylonish gear, have nothing to do here; nor their pretended claims of public interpretation to be palmed or imposed upon the consciences of private men, as they speak, by the "public power of the keys". They have nothing more indeed than devils, who first taught them to sit in the seat of God, and give out that they were God.

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