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A92138 The divine right of church-government and excommunication: or a peacable dispute for the perfection of the holy scripture in point of ceremonies and church government; in which the removal of the Service-book is justifi'd, the six books of Tho: Erastus against excommunication are briefly examin'd; with a vindication of that eminent divine Theod: Beza against the aspersions of Erastus, the arguments of Mr. William Pryn, Rich: Hooker, Dr. Morton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. John Forbes, and the doctors of Aberdeen; touching will-worship, ceremonies, imagery, idolatry, things indifferent, an ambulatory government; the due and just powers of the magistrate in matters of religion, and the arguments of Mr. Pryn, in so far as they side with Erastus, are modestly discussed. To which is added, a brief tractate of scandal ... / By Samuel Rutherfurd, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Published by authority. Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661. 1646 (1646) Wing R2377; Thomason E326_1; ESTC R200646 722,457 814

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image which by a common name is called the honour Worship and Adoration tendred to the image in a bodily manner and being done before the image tendeth to the honouring of the samplar but the outward action of Praising Praying Sacrificing is commonly called Praising Praying Sacrificing in relation to the Samplar to wit God and no way in relation to the image or to things without life neither are they by accident referred to the images only they be tendred to God before images Coram illis But I Answer This is but to beg the Question for we deny that from Adoring the image there resulteth any Adoring of God but a great dishonouring of his Name 2. Durandus Mirandula Hulcot deny that Adoring of God Coram imaginibus tanquam signis memorativis before the images as memorials of God should be an Adoring of the images And Suarez saith If images be only remembrances and memorials in the act of Adoration this taketh much honour from the images and is saith he An Adoring of the Samplar but not an Adoring of the image Though Vasquez expounding Gregories minde which superstitious man calleth them good books contradict Suarez in this yea and himself also for he saith The enemies of images he meaneth the Reformed Churches who use them only for memorials and books it is a lye that we use them as books will not bow their knee to them for then saith he they should Adore them and therefore saith Vasquez if Christ be not in very deed in his presence in the Sacrament present the knee-worship is tendred to bread and wine which is saith he Idolatry therefore either our Formalists are Transubstantiators or Idolaters or both by this learned Iesuites judgement and why by this same reason may we not say against Vasquez that the bodily offerings of prayers prayses and sacrifices to God before the Image as the Image is an honouring of the Image by prayer they say to the tree of the Crosse Auge piis justitiam reisque dona veniam Increase righteousnesse in us and give remission of sinnes O tree crosse to guilty sinners Names at Rome goe as men will but the honour it selfe is put upon the dumbe wood which is due to Christ O it is but a figure say they yea but say we prayers and praises in a bodily manner and vocally are tendred to the wood yet if the wife commit adultery with her husbands brother because he representeth her husband I thinke the matter should be washen with Inke and badly excused to say O the loving wife for strong love to her husband committeth figurative adultery and that bodily harlotry is referred to the brother of her husband by accident and to her husband kindly and per se for himselfe The same way if Formalists bow their knee to bread that such a holy mystery be not prophaned We know they cannot understand civill or countrey non-prophanation that they intend for kneeling and evill maners at the Lords table doe well consist together Now religious non-prophanation by knee-worship is adoring of these mysterious elements Ergo they make prayers and sing praises and offer sacrifices to the bread Let them see to this and answer to it if they can The sixt evasion of wit I find in Johannes de Lugo who saith 1. That the image and samplar making one and the same object by aggregation the inward affection besides externall knee-worship is given to both but to the Image relatively and for God or the samplar and not for proper divine excellencie in it and therefore the Councels saith he call it not adoration in spiritu but it is tendered to God absolutely 2. We give adoration of internall submission to God or the samplar as the debt of potestative justice but we doe not so worship the Image we have no civill or politick communication with the Image because it is not a reasonable creature and therefore the worship of the Image is as it were a materiall and livelesse action when we uncover our head to the Image by that action we would say or signifie nothing to the Image but to the samplar or to God onely 3. The inward submission that we tender to the Image is not that we submit to it as to a thing more excellent then we for that were a foolish lye yet saith he that the man might fulfill the cup of the iniquity of his Fathers we kisse not the Image in recto directly tendring honour to it but to God and the samplar before it 1. Because then I should adore my owne breast when I knocke upon it adoring the Eucharist 2. Because so I bow to the wall before me 3. If I have no honourable opinion of the Image I doe not adore it at all 4. By kneeling to the Image I have a will of submitting externally my affection to the Image I yeeld to it as a thing above me giving to it the higher place 4. The act of adoration is simply terminated upon the Image as a thing contra distinguished from the samplar though it be adored with the same action with which the samplar is adored Thus the ●e●uite Answ But here all men may see many contradictions and that he casteth downe all that formerly he hath said ●● Images even as they represent God are dead things and lesse then a redeemed Saint Ergo I can give them no submission of externall honour 2. I signifie and say nothing of honour to the Image even as it respecteth God and representeth him because the dignity of representing God doth not elevate it to be a reasonable creature therefore I cannot honour it and it were a foolish lye to say that the Image as representing God were a reasonable creature 3. As it representeth God it cannot heare payers nor deliver in trouble as the Holy One of Israel can doe Ergo by the Holy Ghosts argument I cannot bow to a lye Esa 44. 17. and 46. 9. Hab. 2. 19. 20. it made not the heaven and the earth but by a figure because it representeth the maker of heaven and earth wherefore it should have but figurative honour at the best and that is no reall honour Jer. 10. 8 11 12 4. There is no debt of justice due to the dumb wood or element honour of externall submission is a debt of potestative justice due to a superiour the Images and Elements are not my superiour 1. They be meanes I the end 2. They bee void of life and reason which I have 3. They are not redeemed sanctified and to be glorified as I am Ioan. de Lugo answereth As I may love Peter for the goodnesse that is not in Peter but in another as I may love and desire good to Peter for the goodnesse that is in his father and not in himself and so pay the debt of affection to him for another so I may honour an Image for the debt of honour that I owe to the samplar represented by the
an offence before God to despise the church Yea saith our Saviour with a grave asseveration Verily I say unto you they that despise the sentence of you the Ministers of the Gospel being according to truth given out they and their sinnes shall be bound in Heaven Erastus saith he is said to bind who doth retaine the sinne when he maketh the obstinate brother unexcusable and he looseth who remitteth or pardoneth the injury and gaineth to repentance his brother by a brotherly admonition for except he speake of a brotherly composing of private injuries to what end should Christ subjoyne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again I say to you if two agree c. Answ 1. Christ doth argue from the lesse to the more he proveth what the Church bindeth on earth shall be bound in Heaven because if the prayers of two or three gathered together in the name of God and agreeing together on earth are not rejected in Heaven farre more shall that be ratified in heaven which the whole church of Christ decreeth on earth in the name of the head of the Church Iesus Christ 2. When in the chapter going before Christ had ascribed to the Apostles and Pastors which are the eyes of the Church a power of the keyes and here he ascribeth to them the power of binding and loosing there was no cause to dreame that he speaketh here of a private forgiving of private finnes betweene Brother and brother for then he might have said at the first step Thou hast gained thy brother that gaining or convincing of thy brother shall be bound or loosed in heaven no lesse then the Churches judiciall binding and loosing in heaven which yet is set downe as an higher degree of power But I may here say with Beza in the whole Scripture the word of binding and loosing is never spoken of any other but of these who are in publike places and by a borrowed speech here it is spoken in regard of Spirituall power To bind and to loose is by a judiciall power in subordination to Christ the King to remit and retaine sinnes So Iosephus saith the Pharisees ruled all so that they would banish or recall from banishment loose and binde whom they pleased and upon the Authority according to the which Christ sent his Disciples as the Father sent him so he instructed his Ministers with power to remit and retaine sinnes Ioh. 20. 23. and Mat. 16. 19. What thou bindest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on earth shall be bound in heaven what thou loosest on earth shall be loosed in heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So doth Lucian bring in that prisoner speaking to Iupiter Loose me O Iupiter for I have suffered grievous things Mat. 22. 13. Then the King said to his servants take him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 binde him hand and foot binding here you see is done by the command of the great King Acts 21. 11. So shall the Iewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 binde Paul they bound Paul with Law and authority such as it was Iohn 18. 12. The Captaine and Officers tooke Iesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and bound him they bound him not by private authority Mat. 27. 2. and Act. 24. 27. Felix left Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound if Lictors binde any Malefactors they doe it by authoritie and Law So do the Hebrews speake Psal 105. 20. The Ruler of the people loosed him Psal 102. 20. The Lord looketh downe from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to open or loose the children of death Psal 146. 7. The Lord looseth the Prisoners Iob 12. 18. 3. It cannot be denyed but when one private brother pardons another repenting Brother God ratifieth that in heaven But it is cleare the pardon here holden forth by our Saviour is such a loosing as hath witnesses going before 2. Such an one as cometh higher to the knowledge of the Chuuch Nor doth the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again signifie any thing but pretereà moreover 4. And who can say that binding and loosing here is some other thing then binding and loosing in the Chap. 16. ver 9. Where the same very phrase in the Greeke is one and the same except that the Lord speaketh Mat. 16. 19. in the singular number to Peter as representing the teachers and Governours of the Church and here Mat. 18. He speaketh in the Plurall number relating to the Church Now Mat. i6 i8 19. binding on earth and loosing which is ratified in heaven is evidently the exercise of the power of the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven I will give to thee the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven What be these keyes he expoundeth in the same very verse and whatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven then binding and loosing on earth must be in these to whom Christ hath committed the power of the keyes but 1. Christ hath not committed the keyes to all but to Church-rulers that are the Stewards of the House and the dispensers of heavenly Mysteries Hence the keyes in Scripture signifie authority and officiall dignity that is in Rulers not in private men as Esa 22. 22. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder So Christ is said to have the key of David to open and no man shutteth to shut and no man openeth By which out of doubt saith Camero is pointed forth the kingly authority and power of Christ so saith Vatablus And our owne Calvin Musculus Gualther Piscator Beza Pareus agree that the keyes are insigne potestatis an Ensigne of power given to the Steward or Master of a Noblemans house who is a person in office The giving of the keyes sai●h worthy Mr. Cotton is a giving power for the preaching of the word the administring of the seales and censures by which these invested with power doe open and shut the gates Now we desire any Word of God by which it can be made good that the keyes and power to binde and loose is given to all that are in the house even private Christians But we can shew the Keyes and binding and loosing and opening and shutting to be given to the Officers and Rulers of the house Hence I argue that interpretation that confoundeth the key-bearers and the Children with the Servants of the House and the Governours that are over the people in the Lord with the governed and putteth the Characters proper to the Officers and Stewards con●usedly upon all that are in the house is not to be holden but this interpretation is such Ergo c. also to binde and to loose is expounded by Christ Ioh. 20. 21. to be a power to retain and remit sins on earth which are accordingly retained and remitted in Heaven and that by vertue of a calling and Ministeriall mission according to which the Father sent Christ Jesus and Iesus Christ
from gaining of Souls Erastus Though binding and loosing be judiciall and forinsecall words they agree not to the Ministery onely but rather to the Magistrate except you say that in the time of Christ amongst the Iewes there was a Church court beside the Magistrates court Ans That they argue authority judiciall is proved already by many Scriptures and judiciall authority Ecclesiasticall it must be which agreeth to the Church and it was never heard that the Church especially in the New Testament doth signifie the Magistrate 2. There is no necessity to say there was a Christian Church court in Christs time because there was not a Christian Magistrate at this time but the Iewes had then a Church-court before which Christ was conveened Caiphas being President and the blinde man Iohn 9. who was cast out of the Synagogue for that he confessed Christ 3. Christ speaketh of that which was to be though in its frame not yet erected Erastus Christ hath the like words of binding and loosing Mat. 16. which signifieth also to preach the Gospell that he who beleeveth may be loosed and he who beleeveth not may be made inexcusable and therefore it is no other but to pray a brother to desist from his injury shewing him that that is acceptable to God for to binde and loose in all the Scripture is never to debarre any from the Sacraments if you divert your brother from doing an injurie by declaring the will and wrath of God out of his Word thou hast gained him and loosed him if he will not be perswaded the wrath of God abides on him and thou hast bound him Ans If loosing and binding Matth. 16. be preaching of the Word of God and loosing be Christian forgiving of an injury then are women who are taught in the prayer of Christ Mat. 6. to forgive one another invested with the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven to preach the Gospell and why not also to administer the Seals and so are all private men clothed with the keyes to take in and cast out at their pleasure and what are Ministers that are over the people in the Lord and watch for their soules 2. We never said to binde was to debarre from the Sacraments except consequently onely to binde is to declare an obstinate man as a Heathen and so no member of the house of Christ and consequently to have no right to the bread of the children of the house nor say we that to Excommunicate is formally to debarre men from the Sacraments it is to cast them out of the house hence it must follow that the priviledges of the house belongeth not to them 3. You may disswade a man from doing a civill injurie and never gaine his soule but the Magistrates club for which Erastus contendeth in these words cannot reach the soule Erastus None can remit a debt but the creditor nor pardon an injury but he who suffereth the injurie Ans Then none can binde and loose but private men and the keyes of heaven are given to all private persons nor can private persons by forgiving so remit the person as he is loosed in heaven 2. The Church is offended at Scandals and are sufferers Ergo The Church must binde and loose Let Erastus teach us the way except by Church-censures Erastus Casting out of the unclean is not to binde because to purifie is not to absolve the unclean might be purified by any cleane and not by the Priests onely Ans The legall purging of the Leper was onely by pronouncing him cleane and could not be done but by the Priest and it was a loosing of him Erastus Where Christ instituteth any new ordinance he omitteth nothing that is substantiall but here he speaketh nothing of publike sins for which you doe especially excommunicate Ans Christ according to the minde of Erastus does here institute a throne for the Christian Magistrate how doth he then institute a way how the Christian Magistrate may remove private Scandals and not publike for publike Scandals hurt the Church ten to one more then private doe Christ speaks of sins in their rise private betweene brother and brother but he speaketh of publike Scandals of such as will not heare the Church and for these onely we Excommunicate 2. Tha● is not true that any one place of Scripture where an institution is that all the substantials of that institution should be expresly set down in that place it is enough that all be held forth in either one Scripture or other as in Christs sufferings Baptisme Pastors c. Erastus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again I say unto you if two of you shall agree on earth these words must referre to private men not to the Church it is cleare that Christ speaketh nothing of two as hee doth in this verse but when he saith that one private man is to rebuke and gain another private man nor is it enough to say its an argument à comparatis for if the same thing be not kept in both extreames it is a vaine comparison if you say a childe understandeth this Ergo An aged man understandeth it it followeth well But if you say a child understandeth this Ergo An aged man is rich and good who would not laugh But if God heare the prayer of two Ergo farre more will he heare the prayers of the Church it followeth not except you say if those things that two or three bindes on earth be ratified how shall we thinke that that is ratified which the Church bindes and looses Ans Here is nothing but Grammatications that cannot convince it is true that Christ speaking of two he speaketh of private men but many will not grant so much for they say that by two the smallest number is meant a Church of the fewest by a Synecdoche and two may be taken for a small convention and number which doe literally exceed two Jer. 3. 14. Rev. 11. 3. I will give power to my two Witnesses they be more Martyrs who witnessed against Babylon then two literally and this Exposition seemeth to me as good as the other and then if the smallest Church doe binde and loose in heaven and earth so much more the Church and so all shadow of this unsolid Grammattication is removed 2. The proportion is well kept if two praying on Earth be so heard in Heaven as by their prayers they may obtaine that these be ratified in Heaven which they aske on earth farre more is that ratified in heaven which the Church in a judiciall and authoritative way doth on earth in the Name of Christ for praying of private Christians and publike and authoritative binding of the Church doe both agree in this that the Father of Christ ratifieth both in heaven which is a due keeping of proportion and not such a crooked comparison as Erastus would make between an aged man a rich good man 3. Though two private men have the same Analogicall binding in Heaven and earth
brother that is a fornicator Erastus saith he forbiddeth no such thing 2. Though I think Christians may eat with heathens 1. Cor. 10. 27. and that Paul did eat with heathen yet it is no argument to say it is therefore lawfull to eat with one cast out of the Church because we may eat with heathens to gain them and we are not bidden abstain from heathens company that they may be ashamed of their religion though Christians are to use no heathens with intimate familiarity as we do our brethren in Christ But we are to eschew intire fellowship with a scandalous and cast out brother to gain him that he may be ashamed 2 Thes 3. 14. and in this a scandalous brother is in worse case then a heathen But in other respects he is in better condition as being under the medicine of the Church 3. Though we may have commerce and buy and ●ell with heathens and neglect no dutie● of humanity to them as to receive them into our house and to be hospitall to them Heb. 13. 2. Iob 31. 32. Yet this will conclude intire fellowship with neither heathen or scandalous brethren Yea we are not to receive a false teacher into our house 2. Ioh. ver 10. Yet are we not forbidden to neglect duties of common humanity to false Teachers though we be forbidden intirenesse of Brotherly fellowship with them Erastus There is not the same reason of holy things and of private civill things for this not eating belongeth to private conversing with men not to publike Communion with them in the holy things of God One saith It is in our liberty Whether we converse familiarly with wicked men or not But it is not in our power Whether we come to the Lords Supper or not And Paul will not have us to deny any thing that belongeth to Salvation and therefore he saith 2 Thess 3. Admonish him as a Brother and none I hope can deny but the Sacraments are helps of godlinesse and Salvation Ans 1. It is true that avoiding of the company of scandalous Brethren hath in it something civill but it is a censure-spirituall and a Church-censure two wayes 1. Objectively in its tendency Respectu termini ad quem 2. Effectively in its rise and cause Respectu termini à quo it is a spirituall censure Objectively because it tendeth to make the party ashamed that he may repent and become a Brother with whom we are to converse and therefore is destinated for no civill use but for the good of his soul that is a member of a Church that he may return to what he was 2. This censure though one private Brother may exercise it upon another yea a woman on a man who yet hath no Authority over the man is notwithstanding in its rise and efficient cause a Church-censure 1. If Christ will not have one Brother to condemne another while first he rebuke him and if he be not convinced while he do the same before two or three witnesses and if he yet be not gained one private Brother may not after conviction before two or three witnesses repute him as a Heathen or complain of him before an Heathen Iudge as Erastus saith How shall we imagine any one single Brother may withdraw Brotherly fellowship from another Brother by his own private Authority while he first be sentenced before the Church And the Church shall convince him to walk disorderly to cause divisions and offences to be a Fornicator a Covetous person and so to be unworthy of the intire Brotherly fellowship of another For if this order were not in the Church every Brother might take up a prejudice at his Brother and so break all bands of Religious Communion and Brotherly fellowship and dissolve and make ruptures in the Churches Now certain it is These Texts Rom. 16. 17 18. 2 Thes 3. 11 12 c in the letter intimate no such order as is Matth. 18. But it is presupposed as clear by other Scriptures we are not to withdraw from an offending Brother but after such an order Now the places in the letter except we expound them by other Scriptures do not bear that we are to rebuke our Brother before we withdraw from him contrary to Levit. 19. 17. 2. If I am to withdraw from a Brother all Brotherly fellowship by these places then I am to esteem him as a Heathen and as a Brother in name not in reality 1 Cor. 5. 11. Whereas once I esteemed him a Brother and did keep Brotherly fellowship with him now this is materially Excommunication I do no more in this kinde to one who is formally Excommunicated yea I am not so strange to a Heathen Ergo This I must have done upon some foregoing sentence of the Church otherwise I might un-Church and un-Brother the man whom the Church neither hath nor can un-Church and un-Brother 3. Eschewing of Brotherly fellowship to any is an act of Government distinct from the Preaching of the Word tending to make a Brother that walketh disorderly ashamed that he may repent and of a Brother in name only may become a Brother in reallity 2 Thes 3. 14. But this act of Government belongeth not to the Christian Magistrate for every Brother saith Erastus may exercise it toward his Brother Ergo here is Church-Government that the Magistrate hath no hand in contrary to the way of Erastus and not in the hands of Pastors for it is distinct from Preaching nor is it in a Colledge of Pastors Doctors and Elders for Erastus denyeth any such Colledge Ergo here every one must govern another the man the woman and the woman the man the son the father if he walk unorderly and the Father the Son this can be nothing but the greatest Confusion on Earth 4. To put any to shame especially publikely by way of punishment for publike sins must come from some Iudges or others armed with Authority Iudg. 18. 7. 1 Cor. 4. 14. 1 Cor. 6. 5. 1 Cor. 25. 34. Then the Apostles sense cannot be that every one hath power of himselfe without the Church or any authority there from to put his brother to shame for when a brother is not to eat with a scandalous brother he must be convinced by the Church to be scandalous and so cast our 1 Cor. 5. 11 12 13. as we have proved before and every man here should be his owne judge and party in his owne cause except he put his brother to some shame by an higher authority then his owne The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to put a publike note or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the offender So Stephanus So Piscator Nota ignominiosâ excommunicationis Pomponius laetus de Magistr Rom. ● 21. Censores quinto● quoque anno creari solebant hic prorsus cives sic notabantur ut qui Senator esset ejece●etur Senatu qui eques Romanus equum publicum perderet c. Mathaeus Harnish Gec Gabellus who adde to Zanchius his Commentary in 2
as the Magistrate doth is an act of the Magistrate performed by power of the sword Whether the Magistrate do rule in his owne person or by his deputies and servants Ergo the Apostles governing the Church medled with the sword which Christ forbade Luk. 22. 25 26. Rom. 13. 4. Luk. 12. 13 14. and all the Pastors and teachers now in the exercise of discipline do usurpe the sword Yea if they be the deputies of the Magistrate in dispensing word and Sacraments they must use the Magistrates sword as Ministers of the Gospel for what servants do in the name of the supream swordbearer that the swordbearer must principally do by the servants so Ministers by this use both swords 5. That the Magistrate cannot be the chief officer of the Church is thus proved he who is subject himself to heare the Church and to submit to those that watcheth for his soul and to be put out from amongst the midst of the Church if he be scandalous is not the principall Governour and head of the Church to command all But all Christians and so the Christian Magistrate is such for if God accept not the persons of men those places Matth. 18. If he hear not the Church c. Heb. 13. 17. and 1 Cor. 5. 1 2 4 12 13. must tye the Christian Magistrate except God have excepted him but God hath no where excepted the Magistrate But as David had Gad Nathan and other See●s so the Magistrates now have some to watch for their souls The proposition is proved because if the Magistrate be supream to command Elders as Elders both in Doctrine and discipline and in all Ecclesiasticall censures then the Magistrate as the Magistrate cannot be under the Elders and Ministers as such for that involveth a contradiction that Pastors as Pastors should watch over the souls of Magistrates that they erre not and oppresse not in judgement and that the Magistrate as Magistrate should be over the souls of Pastors to watch for them in the same kind if any object that the Pastors as Pastors have souls and therefore they must have some to watch for their souls and therefore can neither be supream nor excepted in those places Mat. 18. Heb. 13. 1 Cor. 5. It is answered by granting all of this or this single Pastor but not of the whole company for when they erre we know not a whole communitie over them but those of the Catholick visible Church and if they erre the Kings of the earth here may command them to do their duty under paine of bodily censure and punish them But none are above them to watch for their souls that we know but they by office watch both for their owne souls and for the souls of others even as the King governeth himselfe and the people both politically 6. Whatever power in matters of Christs Kingdome or the Government thereof the Magistrate hath that must be given of Christ who only can appoint Elders and officers over his owne house but no where in Scripture find we any such power given to the Magistrate Ergo we are to beleeve he hath not any such power The proposition is true because Christ being a perfect Lawgiver and King doth give Lawes for his owne house as particularly as Moses did for every severall pinne in the Lords Tabernacle and David and Solomon for the Temple the assumption I prove because the Government of Christs house is spirituall as the weapons of their warfare are not carnall 2 Cor. 8. 5. and it is in binding and loosing forgiving and retaining sinnes by the power of the keys of the Kingdome of God given to the Church and to such as are sent as the Father sent his Son Christ Matth. 18. 18. 16. 19. Ioh. 20. 21 22 c. But Magistrates as Magistrates do punish sinnes with the sword Rom. 13. 4. but not forgive sins nor binde and loose in earth or heaven nor exercise any spirituall power nor deal with the consciences of men no more then they cure the diseases of the body though indirectly and externally they take care that there be Physicians who can cure diseases The power of governing the Church is the supream power under Christ which can say to the Magistrates power We must obey God rather then men But no such supream power agreeth to the Magistrate as Magistrate For Ministers as Ambassadors of Christ can and may preach binde and loose Rebuke Excommunicate against the will of the Magistrate though he command the contrary as Prophets have rebuked Kings Jer. 1. 18. 22. 1 2. 2 Sam. 12. 7 8 9. 1 King 21. 18 19. Mark 6. 17 18. The Magistrate as the Magistrate can do none of these nor hath he power to command the Ministers of Christ by way of privation but only by way of accumulation he may command them to do their dury and to preach the Gospel soundly and forbid and punish the preaching of false Doctrine the same way Whatever power Christ hath given to his Church that the Christian Magistrate when he becomes Christian cannot take from the Church But Christ gave to the Churches of Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Corinth to the seven Churches of Asia c. a full power to dispense the word and Sacraments to govern the Churches to censure Wolves and false Teachers who draw Disciples after them in Synods to condemne perverters of Soules and refute their Doctrine to put out incestuous persons to Excommunicate such as will not hear the Church and a power to reject a Heretick after twice admonition and to rule well the Church as they should rule their own house and to rule well and to labour in the Word and Doctrine c. when they had no Magistrates at all to rule and govern them as a Church Now if the Church be a perfect visible body society house city and Kingdom of Jesus Christ in esse operari in being and all Church-operations then the Magistrate when he cometh to be Christian to help and nourish the Church as a father he cannot take away and pull the keys out of the hands of the stewards and throw the rod authority power to rule govern binde loose convene in Christs courts and Assemblies from the Church and inthrall the Church This evidenceth how falsely some say That the Church as the Church is without a Magistrate as an Army without a Commander or Leader a Ship without a Pilot a body without a head When the Church in the Apostles times wanting a Magistrate was a perfect spirituall body gathered edified attaining to the unity of faith Eph. 4. 11 12 c. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Rom. 12. 4 5 c. Builded upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Eph. 2. 20. Feed by their own Pastors Act. 20. 28. Sufficiently secured by Jesus Christ from Wolves 29. 30. Golden Candlesticks perfect and intire Christ walking in the midst of them and praised and commended of Christ Rev. 1. 20. 2.
appealed to Cesar if he had been a Christian in the controversie touching circumcision he should have determined who were perverters of souls who not and should have said by his office as Emperour It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to me 3. We have not any practise or precept or promise in the Old or New Testament for any such appeal except they say all hard questions belonging to the Priests office were to come before Moses as a civill Magistrate and not as the great Prophet to whom God revealed his minde 4. If so then all Church controversies in doctrine and discipline should be ultimately resolved into the will of the Magistrate speaking according to the word and faith in most points should come by hearing a Magistrate determining against Arrius that Christ is God consubstantiall with the Father and all binding and loosing in Earth as in heaven should be from the Magistrate as the Magistrate he should forgive and retaine sins and Christ should have given the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven to the Magistrate as the Magistrate certainly we should have the doctrine of the Church of Christ and the building and edifying thereof most obscure in the New Testament in which there is not one word of such a supream and chiefe officer as the Magistrate 5. The Parliament colledge of civill judges as they are civill Magistrates should be the Church assemblies and determine all doctrines debarre the ignorant and Hereticks and Apostates from the Sacraments and totally cast them out of the Church and excommunicate them I see not but then the Parliament as the Parliament is the Church and the two Kingdomes Ioh. 18. 36. must be confounded and no difference at all made between the civill state and the Church because the Magistrate as the Magistrate is made by the adversaries the chiefe officer over the Church the Ecclesiasticall head the mixt Governour halfe civill whole Ecclesiasticall in whose power all Pastors Elders preach dispense Sacraments make Church-canons as his Ministers and Servants Christ when any brother trespasseth against a Christian brother saith Tell the Church never Tell the christian Magistrate But truly it is a great mistake in the learned Mr. Pryn to call them Anti-Monarchicall Anti-Parliamentary and Novators who deny that the Parliament hath any Nomothetick power in Church-canons Nor hath hee in any measure answered the Arguments of those Learned and godly Divines Mr. Iohn Goodwin and Mr. Hen Burton he is pleased to cite the practise of many Parliaments of England who laudably impatient of the Popes yoke have made Church-canons when the man of sin sate upon the neck of the Christian church but these numerous citations of Parliaments and Councels in time of Popery conclude nothing against us who grant when the Church is not her selfe the christian Magistrate may extraordinarily reform and take from the man of sin his usurped power but in a constituted Church the case must be otherwise and 1. Whereas he proveth Emperors and Kings to have a power to convocate Councels It hath not strength against us all our Divines teach so But how 1. an accumulative civill power so Iewel Alley Bilson Whitaker Willet White Roger he might have cited more but no privative no Ecclesiasticall power so as Synods may not lawfully conveen without the command of the civill Magistrate our Divines say many Synods and Church meetings were in the Apostolique Church without the consent and against the will of the civill Magistrate our Divines oppose the Pope who claimeth the only accumulative civill privative and Ecclesiastick power to convocate Synods and that no Synods are lawfull without the consent and mandate of the holinesse of such a Beast 2. Master Prinne saith The Magistrate hath power to direct for time and place and to limit for matter and manner the proceedings liberty and freedome of all Church Assemblies But 1. he asserteth this in the most from corrupt practises 2. He proveth Laymen should have hand as well in Synods as Clergymen the one having interest in the faith as well as the other Ans Then must all the people be members of Synods for all have alike interest of Faith but this proveth not interest of defining which is the question in dispensing Word and Sacraments they have interest of trying all things as well as Pastors but it followeth not Ergo they may dispense Word and Sacraments no lesse yea more principally then Pastors as Erastus saith the Magistrate more principally determineth Synodicall constitutions Hence this is easily answered we may appeal in Church businesse to him as to the supream judge who may punish the erring Church and Pastors but the Magistrate may in Church businesse do this For answer 1. I retort it the Magistrate in making civill Lawes that must in their moralitie be determined by the Word of God may appeal to Pastors whose lips by office should preserve knowledge Ergo the Magistrate in making civill Lawes may appeal to the Pastor which is absurd 2. If men in Church-constitutions may appeal to the Magistrate as to one who may in his person determine Synodically in Assemblies above all the Pastors 1. Because Magistrates may punish the Pastors erring and oppressing in Synods 2. Because the Magistrate and all laymen have interest in the faith as well as Pastors then may people in hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments and in all Pastorall rebukings and threatnings in believing of all Gospel promises and threatnings and fundamentall truths appeal from Pastors to Magistrates as Magistrates and Magistrates as such may determine all fundamentall truths all conscionall promises and rebukes and that is formally they may preach for he that can distinguish these hath a good engine Because Magistrates may punish hereticall preaching and superstitions and idolatrous abusing of the Sacraments by preachers and Magistrates and all Laymen have interest of Faith in Word Doctrine and Sacraments as in Discipline yea the Magistrate may punish the Priest that offered strange fire to the Lord offered bastard incense and the people had their interest of saith in sacrifices offered for their own sins but can it follow therefore the Magistrate might sacrifice and burne incense in his own person as Mr. Pryn will have him to make Church-laws in his own person Other Arguments of Mr. Pryns are light as that there were brethren and Lay-men that had hand in the Councell at Hierusalem Acts 15. Ans This is nothing for Magistrates as Magistrates but all Christians as Christians so must have hand in Synods which I grant in so far as concerneth their faith and practise that they try all things and try the Spirits whether they be of God or not but will it follow Ergo Magistrates as Magistrates are those only who govern the Church and make all Ecclesiasticall constitutions as having in them all power of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and deriving it to Bishops and Pastors at the second hand as Mr. Pryn saith in the same booke Obj.
civill use in our ordinarie dwelling to wit to fence our bodies in religious in naturall in civill actions from injuries of heaven clouds and sin The adjuncts of the Church as Crucifixes Images Altars Ravels Masse-clothes and the like are properly Monuments and instruments of Idolatrie because these are not necessary as is the materiall house nor have they any common and physicall influence in the worship as the Temple hath yea all the necessitie or influence that they have in the worship is only religious and humane flowing from the will of men without either necessitie from our naturall Constitution of body or any word of Scripture and therefore they are to be removed upon this ground because they are unnecessarie snares to Idolatrie Object This particular Temple or house builded for Saint Peter S. Paul S. Cutbert is not necessarie for the worship of God because other houses of as convenient use and necessitie may be had for the worship of God and this particular house ought to be demolished as Jehu 2 King 10. 27. destroyed the house of Baal and made it a draught-house as the law saith expresly Deut. 7. 25. The graven Images of their Gods shall yee burne with fire thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them nor take it unto thee lest thou be snared therein for it is an abomination unto the Lord thy God v. 26. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination unto thy house lest thou be a cursed thing like it but thou shalt utterly detest it and thou shalt utterly abhorre it for it is a cursed thing Or at least these Churches may be imployed for some other use then for the worship of God where they may bee snares Ans 1. We are carefully to distinguish betweene a law of Nature or a perpetuall binding Morall law which standeth for an eternall rule to us except the Law-giver himselfe by a superven●ent positive law which serveth but for a time doe loose us from an obligation thereunto and a positive temporarie law God saith in an exoresse law of nature that obligeth us perpetually The sunne shall not be put to death for the sins of the father no Magistrate on earth can lawfully take away the life of the son for the sin of the father for this eternally obligeth Yet Saul was to destroy the sucking children of the Amalekites for the sinnes of their fathers but he had a positive temporarie command of God to warrant his fact 1 Sam. 15. 2. 3. none can inferre that we are from this law which was a particular exception from a Catholick perpetually obliging morall law that Magistrates are now to take away the lives of the sucking infants of Papists So this is perpetuall and morall and warranteth us for ever to use all the creatures of God for our use 1. Tim. 4. 4. Gen. 1. 27. 28. then we may lawfully use Gold Silver Houses all creatures for meats except some particular positive law or some providentiall emergent necessitie forbid us as the Ceremoniall lawes of the Jewes forbidding the eating of swines flesh and some other meats were no other thing but Divine positive exceptions from the law of nature and creation in the which God had created swines flesh and all these other forbidden meats for the use of Man and so by the same reason God hath ordained Church and houses to fence off us the injuries of Sunne and Aire in all our actions civill and religious except that by a peculiar Precept he forbid the use of the house of Baal to the Jewes to be a typicall teaching to us of Gods hating of Idols and Idolatrie but not of our demolishing and making uselesse all houses builded to the honour of Idols and Saints under the New Testament except wee had the like Commandement that the Jewes had These who oppose us in this can no more inhibite us by any law of God of the ●se of a creature granted to us by the law of the creation then they can interdyte us of the use of another creature nor are we more warranted to demolish Temples and materiall houses which have only a physicall and common use alike in all our actions Naturall civill and Ecclesiasticall or Religious then of eating swines flesh or of other meats forbidden in the Cerem●nial Law and to answer to the Argument this or that materiall house builded to the honour of Paul and Peter is every way as necessarie in the worship of God as a Temple builded of purpose for the worship of God though another house may conduce as much for the worshipping of God as this yea it hath the same very necessarie Use and Physicall conveniencie for the serving of God that any other house hath which was never builded for the honour of a Saint which I prove 1. because no creature of God that is usefull to us by the law of creation is capable of any morall contagion to make● it unlawfull to us but from the mee● will of God as the Gold and Silver and Idol houses of the false Gods and Images of Canaan are in●●●secally and by the Law of creation as pure and morally clean as the Gold and Silver and Synagogues of the Jewes and had their Physicall and civill necessitie the one as the other had But from whence was it that the Jewes might make use of their owne Silver and Gold and houses and not of the houses or silver and gold of the heathen Gods and Idols Certainly this was from Gods meer positive will and command fobidding the Gold and houses of the Idols of Cannan and not forbidding the other the Adversaries can give no other reason therefore they must give us the same positive Commandement for not making use of the Gold and Silver and Temples of the Popish Idols and Saints under the New Testament that the Iewes had for refusing the Gold and Silver and demolishing the Temples of the heathenish Idols of Canaan And if they say Th●● the very command that warranted the Iewes to abstaine from the use of the heathe●s Gold and Idol-temples doth warrant us to abstain● from the use of the Gold and Idol-temples of Papists It is answered we have no warrant from the Word but it shall warrant us as well to abstaine from swines flesh if it be replyed every creature of God eatable i● Good and may be received lawfully 1 Tim 4 6 Rom 14 14 I answer so all gold all silver all houses serving to ●●nc● off the injuries of heaven and aire are good and fit for Mans use and now blessed in Christ under the New Testament except you say that it is not lawfull to make use of the Gold and Silver of a Papis●● Image no● of crees of the Papists fields that b●aret●●● fruit for these also were discharged to the Iewes Deut 20. v. 19 20 and the reason why they ●ight not cut downe the t●●●● th●● be●●●● fruit because these trees were mans life Deuter. 20 19 whereas t●●●●