The hope is enter tained that by virtue of this preaching a congrega tion of the faithful may be formed in a. Chapters advance of its actual organization. One who by his man ner of life or by his doctrine provokes offense is not to be admitted among the number of the faithful unless, within a period of two weeks, he succeeds, by repentance, in removing the ob jections against him.
Congregational activity is to be exercised in assemblies and by means of constituted officers.
The bishops' duties include administration of Word and sacrament, cure of souls, and presiding at conventions. Eligible as bishops are devout, learned, and blameless men of every estate, but not princes, lords, and government officials. Besides the episeopi. The per manent cause of rectitude in the congregation was promoted by the church discipline, which could pro ceed as far as excommunication and was exercised by direct naming of the guilty. To cover the interval between the several synods, an executive committee of thirteen members was to be chosen by the synod from its members, and this committee had charge of instituting and directing the synods, and of devising provisional arrangements to be duly submitted to the synod itself.