Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bind_v	earth_n	loose_v	5,255	5	10.5190	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95843	The supreme povver of Christian states vindicated against the insolent pretences of Guillielmus Apollonii, or A translation of a book intituled, Grallæ, seu vere puerilis cothurnus sapientiæ, &c. Or, the stilts, or most childish chapin of knowledge upon which William Appolonius of Trever, and minister of the church of Middleburgh boasts, among such as are ignorant, in his patcht rhapsodies, which hee set forth concerning supreame power and jurisdiction in matters of religion. Against the book of the most famous Dr. Nicholaus Vedelius, intituled Of the episcopacy of Constantine the Great.; Grallæ. English.	Vedel, Nicolaus, 1596-1642,	1647 (1647)	Wing V168; Thomason E388_5; ESTC R201503	255,312	305

bragges that this right remaines onely for him as being Peters successor and so commonly his subjects beleeve But this is an impudent lye fit for Antichrist Our Apellonians doe indeed convince the Pope of sacriledge for his bragging thus and yet they themselves are more impudently puffed up with this power of the Keyes For they confesse and in effect prove that they cannot preach infallibly and yet they cry out that he is guilty of sacriledge who doubts of their possessing their Key now Which impudency is farre greater then that of the Pope For he assumes to himselfe the right of opening heaven because he saith that he hath an infallible Key and truly Apostolicall But these will have the same right ascribed to them and yet doe confesse that they are not infallible Although hee bee an Impostor who promiseth to open the Treasure making shew of having that Key which hee hath not yet hee is a more impudent Impostor who cries out that hee will open the Treasure and yet confesseth that either he hath no Key or if he shewes any Key it is so unfit and rusty that it cannot open the Lock For because the moderne preaching Key wants true spirituality which is the infallibility of truth it is to be accounted a dead body or like a Clock which is moved about with wheels But these are set on work by the weight of honour and gain No otherwise can wee think of the Judiciall or Censoriall Key which in the Apostles by reason of their gifts and power was alwayes just and effectuall For they had a most divine certitude of Judicature so that they conferred Heaven upon none nor debarred any from it but by a sure knowledge and revelation so that assuredly Heaven was shut against them whom they bound and whose sins were retained on earth and it was certainly opened to them whom they loosed and pardoned It is sufficiently evident that these gifts and power were in the Apostles All which as most rare and exceeding humane reach were promised to the Apostles under the power of the Keyes which is apparent to all who will not shut their eyes wilfully against the light of truth Whence it is cleare that the Keyes are terminated in the Apostles because those conditions with the gifts which I spoke and which make up the Jurisdiction of the Keyes are ceased with them So with as great right they make the Apostles Office permanent and perpetuall in the Church as the use of these heavenly Keyes So that it is frivolous and ridiculous for Apolonius and the Pope to bragge so much of the power of the Keyes as though hee had power to shut and open heaven to binde and loose on Earth what is bound and loosed in Heaven Whereas hee knowes not whom he shall certainly shut out of heaven or shut in And oftentimes perversly hee looseth and judgeth worthy of heaven whom God bindeth and shutteth out of heaven And contrarily he excludes from heaven whom God thinkes worthy of Heaven so that he who compares the vizard of our moderne Censure and Excommunicacion to that of the Apostles seemes no otherwise to play the foole then the Jewes did who were wont to prate strange things of the sanctity of their Temple and fought for the honour thereof against Titus till they were destroyed And yet they might have known had they not been blind that that was not the old Temple of Solomon because it wanted Urim and Thummim and all the benefites of Divine presence and assistance which made up the particular sanctity of that Temple But there seemes to bee a plainer place Matth. 18.17 Tell the Church and if hee heares not the Church let him bee to thee as a Publican and Heathen In which words they say Christ hath given to the Church Judiciall Ecclesiastick power of excommunication which at this day is in use both amongst the old and new Papists The vanity of this conceit will bee easily seen if wee doe but observe that Christ in these words doth not instruct his Disciples as they were to be the over-seers and Rulers of the Church but onely taught ordinary things which are common to all Christians by the right of fraternity according to that generall Rule given to all by GOD Deuter. 17.19 Thou shalt not hate thy brother but sharply reprove him neither shalt thou suffer any evill in him Which Law CHRIST here sheweth must be kept not onely when a brother shall offend God or others but then also when he wrongs us which brotherly duty Christ will have wisely to bee exercised and with moderation lest this reproofe may seem to proceed from revenge or evill words by which the mind of the injuring brother may bee exasperated hee will have the brothers offence to be covered and not to be divulged but will have the difference to be taken up in private between brother and brother by two other brothers whose admonitions if the offending brother slight Christ permits not that the brother offended shall forsake the brother offending but then will have the brothers offence brought out in publicke that it may be made known to all the Church not to stirre up all odiously against him but that they might save him and that he who could not be brought to concord by the reproofe of one or more brothers may be brought to it by the admonitions of some in the Church or all Which endeavour of the Church being brotherly and charitable if the offending brother goe on to contemne the offended brother is not onely permitted but also commanded to esteem of the other at a Publican and Heathen that is that he shall have no private commerce with him as the Apostle describes and declares this act 1 Cor. 5.9.11 and 2 Thess 3.6.14 For Christ alludes to the custome that then was among the Jewes and of which we have already spoken Hence now it appeares that the old and new Papists have shamefully corrupted this place in turning this brotherly and charitable duty into an authoritative and judiciall Office and very insolently have appropriated the word CHURCH to the Rulers and Over-seers of the Church onely Tell the Church that is saith the Papist tell the Bishop which is truly a foolish interpretation unworthy of refutation Tell the Church that is say our new Papists tell the Rulers of the Church which is an unaccustomed acception of this word For they cannot produce one place out of Scripture in which the word CHURCH is appropriated to the Rulers onely I know the Walachrian Stilt-Walker babbles much every where of the Church representative and that the word Church is given to the Rulers thereof because they represent the Church But because hee learned this not out of Scripture but out of Popish writings the inventors of this I answer him briefly That to him who sayes much and proves nothing of right no priviledge belongs which as it is true in humane things so much more in Divine and sacred matters Whence I now

be made a tormenter of mens consciences which serves to preserve and confirme Faith and to comfort afflicted consciences and son these ends was ordained by God I hope you will bear with us patiently if in this we differ from you And a little after In the second held there is yet a greater difficulty for though we know that one should be excluded yet wee see no reason why he upon his repentance should bee longer suspended from the Communion for seeing the Lords Supper is a publike thanksgiving and belongs to the Confession of Faith we thinke it a hard case that a Christian should be forbidden to doe that which in it selfe is just holy and a Christians chiefe duty you rely upon that place Matth. 18. of which much may be said but for brevities sake I forbeare But let us yeeld that such an excommunication is there commanded yet by that place can be meant no longer time then till he confesse his repentance and acknowledging his fault desire reconciliation with the Church For he that said Let him be to thee as a Publican and Heathen the same commands us to forgive our offending brother seventy times seven times by which precept there the Church is bound I hope you will not deny for there also you will say Excommunication is handled For why should the Church which consists only of Christians be more rigid in punishing of offences then becomes private men Or by what reason shall she call him a stranger from the Lords Family whom the Lord himselfe of the Family hath received into grace We would faine see some example to prove that God will not presently receive converted Penitents Did not that prodigall sonne publikely offend against his Father his elder Brother the whole Family yea against heaven it selfe Did not he give scandall both at home abroad yet upon his repentance and confession of his sinne his Father presently pardons him restores him to his former dignity honours him being restored with the ring of reconciliation and for him will have that fat Calfe killled that hee might feast and rejoyce with his whole Family Why then should we debarany longer from that joyfull and saving feast of the Church those that make the same confeshon with her why then should we exact new satisfactions But there is danger you 'l say least they counterfeit repentance I confesse it But shall we avoid this danger if whole yeares they be kept off from the Communion Truly no length of time will reclaime a wicked Hypocrite Neither let us feare to be deceived whilest we imitate God the Fathers Gentlenesse If Hypocrites deceive us it s to their own danger they will to themselves eate and drinke damnation we shall be blamelesse But I beseech you Brother may not we our selves bee deceived and in our rash zeale exclude him from the Supper who being truly converted Christ feedes with his owne body and bloud How unfitting is it to cast him into a new sorrow whom the Sonne of God will have to rejoyce in him How shall we excuse that rigidnesse in rejecting him whom the Lord receiveth into his armes Here surely we may fear lest wee be found companions of that naughty servant who having obtained mercy of his Master used his fellow servant hardly c. And shortly after what you write concerning setting up of Presbyteries in Churches we will easily admit where there is no Christian Magistrate For some there must be by whose authority they may be contained in their duty who are apt to offend lest Religion bee exposed to scorn among strangers But under Christian Princes this care will bee fitter and safer committed to them who sit at the sterne of Government And I know not how safe it may be to create a new Magistrateship for many inconveniences may follow which are tedious now to renearse But this I cannot dissemble in the Palatinate the greatest scandals fell out by the fault of the Elders erected there And who I pray will endure such censures hereafter who suffered the Sicilian an impure Sodomite and a most pestiferous calumniator to escape unpunished that hee might not be drawne before the lawfull Judges For they thought it fit to proceede slowly that they might be the Judges of that m●tter Upon this reason an Italian one well knowne to you and a good man excused them when I objected this example to him Now what is it to claime the Magistrates office to themselves i● this be not Mans ambition truly is unsatiable and few are found who grow not insolent upon any power committed to them And if we will look upon ancient stories we shall finde that the greatest and most dangerous scandals of the Church proceeded from the Bishops and other Ministers which wee may now see in Germany among the Lutheran superintendants who think they may do any thing being armed with too much power but what shal we hope of them who in Heydelberg plead this cause This one boldnesse doth suff●ciently admonish us by which they accuse all men of Atheisme that will not subscribe to their opinion and indeed such men as excell in faith doctrine and holinesse of life If then we feare least a new tyrannie be set up in the Church upon these principles who will say our fear is without cause But as I wrote else-where wee will not hinder them to enjoy their own meaning who thinke they can profitably use this forme of Discipline We only tell them this that they must not goe about to put or to thrust the same shooe upon every mans foot and for a point yet in controversie and whose forme cannot bee every where the same pull the Churches asunder and by making new controversies make themselves ridiculous to the common-enemy To this purpose serves that which Bullinger wrote in a certain Epistle to Peter Dathenus where amongst many other passages he writes thus What we think and what we have ever thought of Churches discipline you cannot be ignorant whereas we have briefly touched it in that confession of the Helvetian Churches but lately published wee never taught that there should bee no Church Discipline at all which we confesse to be needful Concerning the manner and way of this Discipline all men are not nor have not been of the same opinion Our Church never mingled Christs mysticall Supper with Church-Discipline neither hath she been for ought I know therefore accused of impiety by any one neither had we ever a Presbytery or any such Ecclesiastick Senate which examined Communicants or admitted to the Communion or excluded from it sinners those I mean who by their comming to the Supper after serious and grave admonitions do as it were promise amendment of life and desire to give thankes with all their hearts for their redemption We think that wicked men and such as offend the Church should be curbed some other way and amended For we suppose and believe that the Lords supper was instituted by him not to be a Fan

Statutes and Ordinances by what milde name soever he calls them are to be held for Lawes For because they prescribe to Christians under most grievovs punishments what they must doe or not doe as I will hereafter shew who seeth not that these Ordinances have the nature of Lawes So that he playes the cunning Iougler in venting abroad his Holinesse For amongst other Artifices wherein these cheating Hucksters or Regraters doe abound this is one that walking in the darke under a Vizard or Vaile which they can turne as they will they use when they please to increase and lessen their Greatnesse in a minute so that they deceive the most cunning men that are as that they can scar●e think this to bee the same person which they see If it were the purpose of this VValachrian to learne this art of these Knaves I confesse he is a ready Scholler and deserves to weare Aristotles breeches in their Schoole But that he may not deceive the too credulous by this art in heightning and shortning suddenly the sanctity of his Lawes I will in few words expedite matter First I affirme that Church-men such as they are now have he legislative power in Church-businesses that is to make Lawes properly so called Neither is it materiall whether here we call them Lawes or Statutes for Statutes are Lawes When they prohibite punish promise command and obliege all to observe them But the failing of observation presupposeth a penalty Hence it is cleere that hee only hath power to make laws who hath power only to punish the breakers of Lawes Hence this whole legislative power is called jurisdiction which consists in constituting that is in making and executing the Law So that it is a common Maxime among Lawyers that hee only hath this power who is invested with majesty and the supreame power For the Law is a decree of supreame Power and there is no constitution of Lawes without the power of punishing and executing without Empire or Principality there is no jurisdiction For they who can onely judge and have no power to execute such is inferiour Judges they want jurisdiction l. 5.15 D. de re jud l. sin c. ubi apud quem cogu in in t rest By which we may see what a troubler and confounder of the world the Power is who hath produced such Monsters So that hee hath made the Emperour a Hangman and an Inferiour to judge the Emperor for hee hath assumed to himselfe the highest Pawn in Church-matters and under this pretext to judge and determine of Magistrates But that he may not defile his Church-sanctity hee abstaines from execution and the use of the sword he carryes it indeed and shewes it to Princes as it were upbraiding them that hee hath snatch it from thē yet of himself he doth not draw except very seldome but commands Kings to draw it when he pleaseth Thus he grants Kings power to execute but hath snatcht from them the power of judging and ordaining So that now the Prince being divested of all power of judging wanders up and down like a great Hang-man or Gyant being armed onely for this end that hee might serve the Pope that most monstrous Tyrant Our Stilt-walker the Pope Ape in every thing flyers with the same wings He confesseth that he is subject to Princes but not in Church-matters For in these hee claimes right to make Lawes even for Magistrates which they must be bound to obey and to submit themselves and if they obey not he saith that he is armed with divine power of censuring and excommunication But if one take the boldnesse to deny obedience to the Statutes and Penalties that then the Magistrate is bound in duty to assist the Church-men with his sword at whose beck he must draw it to punish the refractory that they may keepe the Churches statutes Who seeth not here the idea of Poperie Among all Godly men it is beleeved that it belongs only to God to make lawes concerning things necessary to his Worship and Salvation For as God every where examines obedience so chiefly in his worship he will have us to adhere to his Lawes onely So that he accounts it stupendious boldnesse for any to worship him 1 Sam. 15. according to mens precepts He is so rigid in this Isa 29.13 that he will not only have the substance of his Worship but the very Rites and circumstances to bo observed according to his prescript as wee may see by the Samaritans who being returned home from the captivity were devoured by Lyons 2 Sam 17 because they worshipped not God and yet it is said there that they did worship God whence it appears that they observed the substance but neglected the rites and circumstances of his worship For which cause Priests were sent from Babylon who might teach them the Rites of his Worship better by which meanes they were delivered from the Lyons So it is cleere that the whole substance and necessary circumstances of divine worship must be sought onely from the mouth of God and his commands And because wee can consult with God no where but in the Scripture it is evident that nothing can be taken for Law or divine institution necessary for salvation but what is in plaine tea●mes set down in Scripture So that the Church hath no power legislative at all except in things not necessary and indifferent to which I will prescribe these Rules 1. Let not any Rites and Ceremonies be used in Divine Worship which doe not plainly agree with Gods Word and with that order and decencie fit for such a Worship The Pope here makes Religious Intentions his rules by which pretext he increaseth dayly ceremonies to that number that by them hee oppresseth Christians and exalts himselfe The Stilt-walker delirous to imitate this Papall power in multiplying Lawes prescribes also the same Rule which is so large and loose that he can dayly delight himselfe with dreams of new Lawes and Rites which hee may belch out and proclaime to his People that hee may upbraid their servitude I deny not but here and else-where he contradicts himself for he is so rigid that he calls it Superstition to make any act to be of holy use or to give it place in Divine Worship without a Divine Law Which I impute either to the mans giddinesse or to a desire he hath to deceive For if hee admit of no act in Religion but what is plainely contained in Scripture Why doth hee under paine of Sacriledge keepe off Religious Magistrates from making of Ecclesiastick Lawes in calling them sacrilegious if they offer to make Lawes for the Church without Church-mens assistance Is it not lawfull for pious Princes to command men that they observe Christs Lawes and Ordinances set downe in Scripture Is there such oddes whether this be enjoyned by Lay-men or Church-men so it be agreeable to Christs Lawes For the Treverian prates openly else-where that Magistrates must not make Church Lawes because they should

conscience sake and hee warnes us to hearken and obey the Governours of the Church Hence they collect if the Magistrates lawes can bind the conscience whereby God will have us obey them then the Church laws also must bind Christian consciences for them also we are enjoyned to obey If I were to cut this knot I would say that there is great oddes between these two commands for the holy Ghost in plain tearmes commands every soule to obey the civill Magistrate for conscience sake As for Church-Rulers he commands honour and obedience to bee given to them but he doth not enjoyne every soule to this nor for conscience sake For those restrictions the maintainers of Pap●●● Hierarchy doe attex or knit by their consequentiary threeds but to such consequentiary Divines it falls out as it doth to unskilfull accountants who reckoning with counters doe unskilfully transferre from one place to another the counter Whence proceeds so great a change in the summe that they are quite mistaken in the reckoning But my prime answer shall he this There is great difference between the obedience due to civill Magistrates and to Church-governours For God hath appoynted the former to be his Embassadours and Vicars upon earth and Gods in his name under which Tittle hee give● them this power that not onely every soule but also for conscience is bound to obey them that is absolutely not onely as they command justly and lawfully but as they command Therefore he hath armed them with the sword that they may force men For if the civill Magistrate command things either just or Indifferent the subject is bound to obey for conscience If hee commands what is unjust the subiect is not bound to performe but to submit either by suffering the punishment or by flight but the obedience due to Church-Rulers is farre other for they are not to bee obeyed absolutely because they command but conditionally if they command lawfully For these Spirituall Rulers must be tried if they are of God or not For if they enter not in at the doore the straight way but unlawfully by a back-doore become Shepheards Captaines and Rulers they are not to be obeyed but reiected as hirelings and wolves Again if they enter in lawfully so that they sit with the Scribes in Moses his Chaire and yet wil mingle the leven of their Traditions they are to be avoyded as blind guides yea to be cast out as unsavoury salt and to be trod under foot Christ himselfe commanding as I will hereafter shew more fully so that here now we may see another Legislative Divinity quite different from that of the old and new Papists for the Pope hath long since perswaded Christians that every soule must be subject to him even of Princes as to the universal Steward of the Church and that for conscience sake they are bound to obey his Edicts absolutely for which end hee hath armed himselfe also with the temporal sword for he carries two that he may shew himselfe to be the transcendent sword-bearing power of Paul by which right he claimes to himselfe such absolute power in the Church that though sometimes he creeps in like a Fox and reignes as a Lion yet he will bee absolutely obeyed till he die like a Dogge The same is the ground of the Walachrian Jurisdiction For the Stilt-walker doth not on this lay the foundation of speciall and divine right of law-giving that hee is a lawfull Pastor and commands things lawful for so he should be subiect to every mans examination but upon this priviledge that hee is the Captain Leader Shepheard and Embassadour of Christ in which Authoritative and Regall power he so reioyceth that he openly confesseth the Magistrates themselves to bee subiect to his lawes and that it is not in their power to make Church-lawes so that hee doubts not to accuse them of tyranny if they presume of themselves to command Church-men or to question or abrogate Church-ordinances so that the Walachrian Papists chiefe drift is under pretext of legislative power to dominiere over Magistrates and to prescribe lawes not onely in Church but in civill affaires also as shall seeme best to the Walachrian supercilious spiritualities Many examples of this matter doth the Stilt-walker shew at Middleburgh whereof some I have mentioned already I will adde one more of which hee vapours much elsewhere in his patcht book Heretofore the Magistrates of Middleburgh as they say ordered that in the Church Organs should be used for regulating the tunes in singing of Psalmes This gave occasion to the Walachrian to ●reprove the Magistrate and as they say hee did shamefully in his Pulpit inveigh against this order shewing the indignity and erroneousnesse thereof to the people not without scoffs And because he was not ashamed to set down in this book the summe of his reasons which he impudently used against his own Magistrates it shall not be amisse by the way to refell them First he sayth very imperiously that this order is very repugnant to Divine Right and the Churches practice His prime argument is That Organs were used in the Iewish Temple whence he concludes that hee digges up againe Indaisme who brings Organs into Christian Churches How frivolous this reason is any indifferently learned may see For I ask if every thing used in the Jewish Temple be unlawfull in Christian worship I suppose he will not say so if he be wise For either there must be no Christianity or God must create new Elements for in the Jewish worship were not onely Organs Cymbals and Tymbrels but Gold also Silver Garments Silk Wooll Water Bread Wine and many other things He ought then to have declared more particularly what was precisely ceremoniall and not to be used when we see that every thing is not to be reiected He instanceth that Christians should at least omit these things which served for the worship of the Jewish Temple For because God destroyed that Temple he gathers by an unanswerable Argument as he calls it that what was used in the worship of that Temple was abolished and should be removed from Christian worship But here againe he feeds his Reader with toyes for if we must use nothing in Christian worship which was ordained for the Jewish worship why doth he use Churches In the worship of the Temple there were not onely Organs but the Book of the Law also and Water Bread Wine a Table an Ark Seats Pulpits Stones Linnen c. Why doth he not also desire the removal of these things The very singing of Psalmes is borrowed from the Jewish worship Epist ad Hooper sayth Martyr Why is not this also reiected by the Law-giver Apolonius He instanceth That Pipes and Organs are dead things and wind Instruments and as it were Rattles fit for such children and stiffe-necked people as the Iewes but these become not Christians I answer the Stilt-walker hath so little breath or spirit in his Assertions that he produceth nothing that hurts these pipes

saith that among the offices of the Church there were Governours and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presidents or Bishops Which offices because they were separated from the generall government of the Apostles it is not to be doubted but that they consisted in the speciall power of censuring and curbing of Christians Rom. 12. against Ataxie and alse of defending the Church Whom therefore Aretius thinks were Laics who had inspection over mens manners Lib. 4. Instit c. 20. and discharged the office of Magistracie So Calvin saith that there were grave men who had charge of manners which is all one with the Civill power that under these may be commended every kind of just government Lastly I will prove by a necessary reason that there were then in the Church who judged of secular matters that is were Magistrates For we know out of 1 Cor. 6. that there were among Christians controversies about secular business Hence I necessarily collect that their Judges were either within or without the Church If they were without onely then the Corinthians did well in going to them or else they must have left them still unjudged But the former is repugnant to Pauls reprehension the latter to equity and reason Hence necessarily it followes that within the Church there were such as decided controversies or might have decided them and I pray what else were these but such as Magistrates at this day So that here I hold this Walachrian Batt by both his wings fastned with ten-peny nailes to the doores of his Church where having discovered his deformity he may spend his dayes in biting and chirping But what if it were as certaine as the Walachrian would have it that there were not Civill Magistrates under the Apostles and consequently that then there were no right and operations of non-entities how will his Logick prove that it must be so continually except he will perswade us that Magistrates should be alwayes infidels and enemies of the Church because they were such under the Apostles which assertion were impious and monstrous and contrary to experience For three hundred years after Christ Emperours as it was fore-told kissed the Son Psal 2. were made the Churches nursing Fathers and Patrons as it was apparent in Constantine and others Whence we see the Stilt-walkers madness for he disputes no other wayes then if I should say of Nebuchadnezzar so long as he was a beast he was unfit for government and therefore had no command in his Kingdome Hence I should collect that this was perpetuall and that he never had his Kingdome againe whereas we know that as soone as he was restored to his reason he was also restored to his kingdome and honour and betooke himselfe to his ancient government or if a Master of a Family should be unfit to rule his house because he is distracted in minde so that he must guide it by some other but if he recover his health who will say that he must not return to guide his family again This is the intent of these Walachrian Sophisters because impious Magistrates were sometimes mad and unfit Fathers to guide the family of Christs Church that therefore now they are still unfit although they be restored to their wits and albeit that God hath honoured them with faith piety knowledge prudence and all other gifts fit for a Father yet they must be accounted mad still and must be kept out of the Church bound fast in Bedlam that these unnaturall sons alone might rule as they please I will rather thus reason because Magistrates did not in the Apostles time rule the Church which they alwayes should have done by Gods owne institution because they were Infidels and enemies therefore now they are bound to rule her in that now they are made by faith tutors and nursing fathers of the Church This is all one as if we should say of the Israelites that they must never use husbandry and mechanicall trades because God for 40 yeares together sent them Manna from heaven and kept their utensils from wearing so that neither their clothes nor shooes were worne for experience taught the contrary And although perhaps many would have been well content to have been idle and to enjoy that benefit still yet as soone as they went over Jordan Josh 5. Manna failed them and their utensils began to weare whence they were forced to returne to their agriculture and mechanick trades I will then hence inferre since Magistrates are become Christians they are to be admitted into the whole ancient right which out of the Old Testament we have shewed what that was So that there is now nothing in the whole Church-government which is not lawfull to them by Divine right both for matter of action rule and care This is not my opinion alone but Calvin himselfe every where infinuates this in his Writings Although Christ would not have the beginnings of his Kingdome to be helped by the sword Com. in Deut. 13.5 c. yet he had not prescribed to himselfe an eternall law but at last he forced Kings to obey him c. and of persecutors made them keepers and patrons of the Church Magistrates at first exercised tyrannie against the Church because the time was not yet come that they should kisse the Sonne of God and having laid aside all violence should become nursing fathers of her whom they persecuted In his Commentarie upon 1 Tim. 2. he saith that Magistracie in the Church is as the earth by whose fertility as the corne is procreated so by the Magistrates office the Church is nourished In his Comment on Mat. 20. saith that by this command of Christ we see the Anabaptists fury in excluding Magistrates from the Church of God for it may be that he who was Lord of a towne or village might also in case of necessity performe the function of a Teacher It is then plaine that this man was of a far other opinion then the Walachrians who under pretence of hostility exercised by Nero in the Apostles time against the Church goe about to debar Magistrates for ever from medling with Church-business This was the cunning of growing Antichrist to keep off Magistrates from Church-affaires as being holy and not to be touched so that like another Aeolus he swaggers alone in the Church court Neither have there been wanting at all times some Hermaphrodites halfe men soft and effeminate Princes who with Sardanopalus laying aside all their masculine vigour have submitted themselves to Ecclesiastick whores Such was among the rest Theodosius the younger who wrote to the Synod of Ephesus That it was unlawfull for any man who was not in the catalogue of holy Bishops to meddle with Church queries But much more carelesly Basilius the Emperour who in the 8. Synod said That no Laey-man of what dignity soever ought to move questions in Church-matters this belongs to the Patriarchs Bishops and Priests who have power to bind and have the Church keyes and not to