Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/67

 ideas of the Independents and, more important still, the political and constitutional conclusions and analogies to which they naturally led.

The exact distinction between Presbyterians and Independents in 1643 appeared in their definition of a church—their designation of the body which should judge, censure, and excommunicate professing Christians. In theology the Presbyterians and the Independents of the Westminster Assembly and New England were alike orthodox Calvinists. They were alike in that each considered his ecclesiastical system ordained by Scripture and therefore of divine right; they differed only as to which system was jure divino! The Independents believed that the government of the church as above defined rested solely with the officers and members of the individual congregation—the unit in which Christians enjoyed the administration of the “ordinances” of preaching, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism. The Presbyterians on the other hand considered the church for purposes of government to be an assembly of the elders and officers of the various congregations in a district or a nation.