oblige the conscience Hence we may gather how impossible it is to share betwixt laity and clergy by Divine and humane right power of legislation and jurisdiction about things causes and persons as that pastors and ministers should be over things that are of divine right and magistrates over those things that are of humane right without clashing of powers causes and persons there being such a complication of right causes and persons that they cannot be so much as imagined a sunder besides that the preaching of the Gospell and magistracy do comprehend all actions of man and parts of life wherein men ought to live godly justly and soberly CHAPTER III. The nature matter forme and author of law The canons and sentences of Church-judicatories have no force of law except they receive it from the sanction of the magistrate The defects in the division of lawes into Divine and humane into morall ceremoniall and politick and into Ecclesiasticall and civil INtending chiefly to prove the vanity and nullity of a power called ecclesiasticall distinct from that of the magistrate since also no power of legislation nor of jurisdiction can be exercised without a power to make a law and to command obedience to the law it will be requisite to know the nature of law that so making good that Church-officers are not invested with any power to make lawes or to command obedience to them all their jurisdiction may be brought to just nothing Law sometimes is taken for a dictate of nature or right reason and consent of nations thus they say of Aesop that though he was free by nature yet the law of man enslaved him generally it is defined the rule of actions and duties This ensuing definition I conceive to be one of the most perfect Law is a rule of life and of morall actions made and published by a legislatour armed with a judiciall power commanding things to be done and forbidding things that are not to be done under recompenses and penalties To understand the nature of law we must consider the matter of law which is whatever can be commanded whether God or man be the author of it so that no causes or things can be exempted from being the matter of the law of God or of man it is enough that it may be commanded The very doctrine and matter of faith may be matter of the law for the Hebrew thorah signifieth both law and doctrine so that there is no doubt but that not only the decalogue but also all the doctrine of the Gospell is matter of the law For were there any thing that should not be the matter of the law of man we had need to have a visible infallible judge on earth besides the soveraign magistrate who should determine which thing must be the matter of the law which not The very doctrine of the Trinity is made the matter of the Code of Justinian and Theodosius commanded that all his subjects should embrace the religion that Peter the Apostle Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria professed 2. Next we must consider the form of the law which giveth force of law and without which law would be no law and no obedience were due to it in the court of man That form is the stamp or sanction of the soveraign power obliging men to obey upon penalties Law saith Campanella without penalty is no law but counsell That form is expressed in short in the Digests Legis virtus c. the vertue of the law is to command to forbid to permit to punish The soveraign power giveth the form of law to any matter that is the subject of a mans dutie or obedience either to God or man yea it giveth form to the lawes of God which though they oblige the conscience whether published or no by the magistrate yet they are of no force in the court of man to oblige for fear of punishment and as the Apostle speaketh for wrath except they are commanded by the magistrate So that it is properly man that giveth name and force to a law and a man may well say with St. Austin ep 66. that Jesus Christ commandeth by the magistrate hoc jubent Imperatores quod jubet Christus quia cum bonum jubent per illos non jubet nisi Christus 3. We must consider the author of the law either as he that hath given his counsell and it may be furnished the matter and contrivance of the law as Tribonianus to Iustinian or he that hath given sanction and force of law to the matter brought to him such was only Justinian and not Tribonianus Sometimes the same person contrives the law and giveth sanction to it such was Solon and Lycurgus God who is the author of his lawes is not the enforcer of them among the Mahumetans nor any where else without a Moses but with those people whom he doth encline to obedience by a law of the spirit 4. To the nature of the law it is required that the legislator be armed with a sword to punish the transgressours of the law therefore equity truth and justice are no conditions required to the validity of a law for it receives force from the will of him who is able to make his will good were it never so bad 5. It is required that the legistator should command his own lawes not anothers commanding in his own name and not in the name of another and therefore those that are invested with judiciall soveraign power are to give account of their actions only to God By what I have said it is easily conceived what force of law have the judgements sentences canons decrees of ecclesiasticall judicatories except they receive form and sanction from the magistrate without which they are but counsels admonitions and advices 1. Touching the matter they may afford it as Tribonianus to Iustinian in that sense they may be the authors of a law but they cannot give form and sanction to it obliging men under penalties in case of disobedience since they are not invested with coactive power without which law is no law except they have that power in subordination to the magistrate for two coordinate powers cannot give sanction to the same law except it could be imagined that the will of one should never crosse the will of the other which is not conceivable 2. Ministers and church-judicatories are not to command any lawes much lesse their own lawes but only deliver the commands of a superiour either God or the magistrate The pastor may say with Moses Exod. 18. v. 15. I do make the people know the statutes of God his lawes but he cannot lay any penalty upon the breaker of the law except as Moses he be invested with magistracy But were the minister not only to deliver the commands of God but also lay a command this he could not do but in the name of God and therefore the magistrate hath this priviledge that although he be a minister of God as well as
power which like wooden legs to a lame man must be more in number and worse for substance and unfitter to walk upon then good legs of flesh and bones to another for whereas this must have but two the other must have as good as four and yet very bad ones According to our principles these two only things well considered and retained namely the power of the word in the ministery and the externall power of magistracy will clear and decide the whole controversy and assert the right of churches and the power of magistracy in them and over them whereas all the limbs of the ecclesiasticall power which are more in number then the pillars of Salisbury church are not capable to prop up the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction independent from that of the magistrate But it would be now too long and tedious a task having handled that subject very largely in the second chapter of my Paraenesis and hoping to speak further of the same when I meet with M. Gillespie who being a great schoolman hath devised a number of cases and boxes to lodge his ecclesiasticall power in CHAPTER II. Of the nature and division of right divine and humane In vain do they call things of divine positive right which are acted by a naturall right such are many church acts Things that are of divine right may be said to be of humane right and on the contrary those things that are of humane right may be said to be of divine right which is an argument that by right power cannot be divided betwixt clergie and laity RIght in Latine jus differs from law as rule from justice for law is the rule it self but right is the justice of the rule Sometimes it signifieth that vertue called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equity which abates of the rigour of the law But right in generall that comprehendeth all rights is that which is due to every one by either equity that is by the law of nature and of nations or by an instituted law Sometimes right is so stiled by those that will call it so because they have the better sword thus Ariovistus answered Caesar that right of war was that the victor should give law to the vanquished By naturall right we understand that which is consonant to right reason Commonly right is divided into private and publick Private right is the same with personall right which is had either independently from masters parents husbands those that have it are called sui juris or dependently upon masters and parents The publick right is either naturall as when St. Paul saith that the Gentils do naturally the things of the law or instituted and is called positive right having a positive rule which is given either by God or by men God giveth it 1. to certain persons as to Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses c. 2. to a certain people as to Israel 3. to all men either for a time as the law of not eating bloud or for ever as the Sacraments and the preaching of the Gospell It is not possible to give an exact division of right Many things that are of naturall right are also of divine and instituted right so many divine precepts as is the decalogue are of humane institution but custome hath prevailed that these precepts should be of positive right that have no footstep in nature as is the observation of a seventh day the forbidding of eating the tree of death and life We say things to be of naturall right in which we are rather born then brought up and which are naturally imprinted in us as is the law defined by Tullius 1. leg law is a soveraign way imbred in nature commanding things to be done and forbidding things contrary By that law we know many things instituted and delivered in Scripture as that obedience is due by children to parents by servants to masters by wives to husbands that theft murder is to be avoided and to come nearer to our purpose that there is one God that he must be worshipped that he cannot be worshipped except it be in meetings and assemblies in one place that in those assemblies all must be done in order that the whole assembly if it be numerous must be governed by some choice men chosen out of the whole body and deputed from them likewise the law of nature and of nations teacheth us that what is agreed on by the major part of those deputies must stand for a law that that law must be obeyed under penalties albeit if we be ruled by the positive law of God we are not so much to follow the number of suffrages and votes in carrying of a law as the soundnesse and goodnesse of the law This also is a law of nature practised even by all nations that soveraign command about sacred things yea the chief sacerdotall function belongeth to the soveraign power of which law a part hath been abrogated by the revealed law of the Scripture which did so sever the sacerdotall function from the regall that the regall still kept the soveraign jurisdiction about sacred things This is also a law of nature and nations that every assembly and convention of men should have power to chuse admit and exclude members of their own society and to perform all acts conducing to their subsistence Those rights of nature God by a superiour dictate or command in the Scripture hath not abrogated for grace doth not take away but perfects nature So that no member of a society is to recede from its naturall right liberty and priviledge except by a positive law of God or man he is restrained and commanded otherwise Those rights of the naturall law being well understood it will easily be stated by what right or power naturall civil politicall I had almost said ecclesiasticall despoticall paternall maritall not only every society family but also each member acteth for the greatest mistake about ecclesiasticall power is that many acts of ministers and people are said to be of ecclesiasticall ministeriall divine positive right which indeed are acts grounded upon the law of nature and nations and are derived from a liberty and common prudence that every rationall and free man maketh use of in ordering all kinds of societies fraternities corporations whereof he is a member without needing to flie to a power taking its right and name as if it were of another classis nature and kind and independent from any other For as a man being at once master of a great family fellow of a colledge of physitians a citizen and member both of the Commonwealth and of the Parliâ—ment besides of a church is not said to act by so many kinds of rights and powers as his stations are in the Commonwealth as if in his colledge he acted by a medicall or academicall power in city or hall by a civicall power in a church by an ecclesiasticall or church power all being supposed to be alike coordinate and not being subordinate to the supreme power so
division of lawes into civil and ecclesiasticall and tells us how far lawes are to be called ecclesiasticall though they be in truth the magistrates lawes only because they are made by him for the good of the church for as properly saith he lawes may be called scholasticall and Academicall because they were made for the good and benefit of schools or Universities and so far and no further can it be allowed that lawes should be ecclesiasticall CHAPTER IV. Of the nature of judgement what judgement every private man hath what the magistrate and what ministers synods and church-judicatories They have no definitive judgement as Mr. Rutherfurd asserts but the magistrate hath the greatest share in de finitive judgements which is proved by some passages of Mr. Rutherfurd and of Pareus and Rivetus Who is the judge of controversies NOt to run over all the acceptions of judgement which I have handled in my Paraenesis I will mention but one that serveth to decide the whole controversie which lieth in a narrow room whether the magistrate or pastors assembled in a presbytery and synod or even private men be judges of controversies about faith and discipline Iudgement is an act by which every man endowed with reason or pretending to have any upon debating within himself and weighing things to be done or to be believed at length resolveth peremptorily what either he will do himself or will have others to do about things he conceiveth to be true just and usefull For to the nature of judgement it is not required that the thing that a man will do himself or will have others to do be true just and good it being enough that he apprehendeth them to be so I make two judgements one private the other publick The private I call judgement of discretion by which every one having weighed and debated within himself the truth equity goodnesse or â—sefulnesse of counsels advices commands doctrine and persons at length choseth and pitcheth rather upon this then that this judgement may be called judgement of knowledge and apprehension The publick judgement is the delivery of ones private judgement so far as concerneth others by which a man uttereth what he conceiveth fitting for others to do or believe This judgement in ministers presbyteries synods wise men counsellors physitians and others not invested with any jurisdiction and who have more authority then power is called advice counsell declaration when they deliver their sense meaning and opinion upon any debated subject concluding something which they conceive others are to embrace believe or practise In magistrates and men invested with jurisdiction both this publick judgement and the private have the same operation as in ministers synods counsellors and the like but over and above it causeth them to command what they conceived fitting to be received and practised By the publick judgement Pastors do what St. Austin saith Epist 48. to Vincentius pastoris est persuadere ad veritatem persuadendo pastors are to bring to truth by persuasion sed magistratus est cogendo but magistrates are to bring to it by constraint and by commanding From these publick judgements every private man is to appeal to his private judgement of discretion not yielding and giving his assent to the declarations canons sentences of ministers any further then by his judgement of discretion he conceiveth them to be true just and usefull not obeying actively the commands of the magistrate in case he conceiveth them by the same judgement of discretion to be against faith and good manners The staring thus and dividing of judgement decideth as I conceive all the questions and doubts arising about this subject and answereth all Mr. Râ—therfurds and Gillespies definitions and objections concerning judgement They make a fourfold judgement apprehensive discretive definitive and infallible which belongeth only to Jesus Christ The definitive they say is proper to ministers and church-judicatories But they forget the main judgement which giveth life and force to all the rest and is the magistrates when he bringeth to execution things well debated by the judgement of declaration and approved of by the judgement of discretion In that division of theirs they also commit two great errors 1. That they make of one judgement two for to the judgement of discretion they adde a judgement of apprehension which differs only in degrees from the other and were these judgements distinct yet they go alwaies together and are alwaies in the same person and do belong to the private judgement 2. They ascribe a definitive judgement to pastors and church-judicatories which they themselves had need to explain what they mean by for 1. must every private man stand to it and not appeal from it to his judgement of discretion 2. if they do not stand to it what inconvenience harm or danger or worse consequence can befall him then any one that despiseth good counsell or advice which put no obligation except they be reduced into lawes and commands by the magistrate 3. must the magistrate adhere to that definitive judgement and command them without debating within himself whether those definitions be agreable with his own publick or private judgement which indeed is to make of him an executioner If he must not stand to the definitions of pastors and synods but rather they must stand to what he conceiveth most fitting then it is evident that that judgement of pastors called by them definitive is of no validity and hath need to take another name since neither magistrate nor private men are obliged to stand to it except they be convinced that it is reasonable and that its definitions are true just and usefull The evidence of this truth about judgement is so clear that Mr. Rutherfurd and Gillespie are unwares carried sometimes to deliver the substance of what we said before I will alledge but two passages out of Mr. Rutherfurds book of the divine right of church-government for there he overthroweth his definitive judgement of pastors or church-judicatories and setteth above it not only the judgement of the magistrate but also that of every private man for sure that definitive judgement that may be reversed and rejected without any redresse by the ministers cannot be of any weight or validity The first passage is ch 25. quest 21. p. 668. The magistrate is not more tyed to the judgement of a synod or church then any private man is tyed to his practise The tye in discipline and in all synodicall acts and determinations is here as it is in preaching the word the tye is secondary conditionall with limitation so far forth as it agreeth with the word not absolutely obliging not Papal qua nor because commanded or because determined by the church and such as magistrates and all Christians may reject when contrary to or not warranted by the word of God If such words had faln from Grotius or Mr. Coleman they would have been branded for rank Erastianisme If all the presbyterians will but put their names with
and the civil and therefore no need to make two of one that ecclesiasticall presbyterian jurisdiction is bounded by the same limits as is the civill jurisdiction which is against the nature of all other jurisdictions different from the magistrates power though subordinate to it as is the maritall and paternall powers none doubting but a father in England hath a power over his son in France and that a wife is subject to her husband however distant from him Now it is granted by all that the jurisdiction of churches combined and that of synods never went beyond the magistrates jurisdiction that the churches of Persia Aethiopia and India were not tyed to observe the deciees of the first councill of Nice nor the reformed churches of France those of the synod of Dordrecht neither the church of Barwick to submit to the orders of the generall assembly of Scotland and yet some do not stick to maintain that a man excommunicated in Scotland is also bound by the same sentence in France or Holland because if we may believe them it is reasonable that the sphear of activity within which excommunication acteth should as much spread down wards as upwards and that since a man bound by excommunication at Edenburgh is also tyed in heaven good reason he should be bound and fast in any part of the earth 4. This also which all churches classes and synods assume makes their jurisdiction wholly concurring in nature and property with the jurisdiction of the magistrate which is that as in all civil and politicall assemblies the major and the stronger part in votes not in reasons doth carry it so decrees and canons because the major part have voted them to be such are therefore receivable by inferiour ecclesiasticall judicatories as they call them whereas since they pretend that ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is of a quite different nature from that of the magistrate it were most convenient that it should not be like it in this main particular but that private men or churches should adhere to truth not to multitude not numbring the votes but weighing the reasons And indeed this was well considered by the Parliament in their ordinance for calling of the assembly for though they took upon themselves that power of legislation jurisdiction whose votes are not weighed but numbred and which cannot be otherwise exercised in this world yet they very prudently conceived that such a jurisdiction could not be assumed by churchmen as such in matters of religion for they never intended that whatsoever should be transacted or defined by the major part of the ministers of the Assembly should be received for a canon and an ecclesiasticall law that should stand in force since they expressely enjoyn in the rules which they prescribed to the assembly 1. that their decisions and definitions should be presented to the Parliament not under the name of law made to them but of humble advice 2. that no regard should be had to the number of the persons dissenting or assenting but that each party should subscribe their names to their opinion 5. Another argument to prove that the ecclesiasticall and the magistrates power are not coordinate but that the ecclesiasticall is subordinate to that of the magistrate and that they both are of the same nature is that both of them magistrate and ministers challenge not only the duty of messengers from God in delivering to the people the lawes of God but also as judges exercise power about making new lawes which do oblige to obedience for conscience sake for the assemblies presbyteries of Scotland do not only presse obedience to the lawes expressely set down in Scripture but also to their canons decrees and constitutions 6. Another argument to prove the identity of the powers ecclesiasticall and civil is that both are conversant about lawes and constitutions that are made by men such are most of the canons and constitutions of synods and ecclesiasticall assemblies which are no more expresse Scripture then the Instinian Code and therefore it is altogether needlesse to constitute two coordinate humane legislative powers 7. But suppose that all the decrees canons constitutions of presbyteries and church-assemblies were word of God and divine precepts this very thing that they are divine constitutions and that one jurisdiction or other must be conceived enjoyning by a sanction and commanding obedience to them argueth that ecclesiasticall and civil jurisdiction are but one For what can the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction do more then to give a sanction to the lawes of God which thing the magistrate is to do If he must give a sanction to the decalogue why not to all other precepts which are equally of divine institution 8. It is absurd to put under the Gospell a difference betwixt the jurisdiction or law of Christ and the law of God the universall Monarch as Mr. Gillespie speaketh p. 261. for there is no precept of the decalogue there is nothing good holy honest and of good report but is the law of Jesus Christ and therefore since the magistrate cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a minister of God as St. Paul calls him but he must be a minister of Jesus Christ and that he cannot be keeper of the decalogue and of the law of God under Moses administration but he must be also the keeper of the law of Christ what need to constitute two coordinate judiciall powers each of them being pari gradu subordinate to Jesus Christ Lastly if the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this world and that this Kingdom as our brethren tell us is the presbyterian government then this Kingdom must have a jurisdiction and lawes quite different from the Kingdom and jurisdiction of this world which yet doth not prove true by the parallels we have made of both jurisdictions Mr. Gillespie a member of that Assembly pag. 85. endeavoureth to shew what a wide difference there is betwixt these two jurisdictions in their nature causes objects adjuncts but I might upon the same grounds maintain the like wide difference betwixt martiall navall testamentall paternall maritall and civil power all differing and yet subordinate to that of the magistrate I might also attribute to each society its peculiar power placing in a colledge of physicians a medicall power subordinate to God the God of bodies health and outward safety as the civil is subordinate to the God of the Universe and the ecclesiasticall to Christ For if the God of nations hath instituted the civil power and the God of saints the ecclesiasticall as Mr. Gillespie speaketh what hinders but that the God of nature hath instituted the medicall power And if morall good be the object of the civil power and spirituall good of the spirituall power why may not bodily health be the object of the medicall power CHAPTER VI. Whether Iesus Christ hath appointed a jurisdiction called ecclesiasticall as King and head of his Church Of the nature of the Kingdom of God In what sense the magistrate is
I humbly conceive that Gods work which is also your work in settling religion is half done to your hands For all jurisdiction now streaming from one jurisdiction even from that of the Soveraign Magistrate that religion cannot chuse but be well settled which retaining soundnesse in doctrine and holinesse in life is harboured under such a church-government as hath no clashing with that of the Magistrate Such as I humbly conceive may be established by setting up Overseers and Bishops over Ministers and Churches with whom if the right of private Churches can but stand be kept inviolable as no doubt but it may no government can be imagined more preserving conformity in doctrine and discipline besides banishing all jurisdiction which steps between magistracy the inward jurisdiction of the spirit of God in the word over mens minds hearts and thereby making all the church-judicatory power more naturally flowing from and depending upon the Magistrate and easing him by this compendious way of inspection by a few good mens eyes who may have a particular oversight of the affairs of the Church And thus by such a tempered government the four parties namely the Episcopall the Erastian the brethren of the Presbytery and of the Congregationall way will have a ground for reconciliation obtain with some condescension what every one of them desireth The Lord make you his instruments to make up all breaches among brethren and to bring to passe what hitherto hath been rather desired then effected 〈◊〉 settling the reformed Protestant religion in the purest way of reformation and commending your modell and labours therein to other Churches abroad that as the English Nation for purity of doctrine power of godliness hospitality and bowels of mercy toward strangers the persecuted members of Christ hath hitherto gone beyond all the world so you may be instruments to preserve those blessed priviledges by further promoting the interest of Iesus Christ particularly by clearing and removing the mistakes and misunderstandings from many of our brethren beyond the seas who by the suggestions and false informations of some enemies to the people of God in this Island or of friends to Popery superstition and formality are as ready to misapprehend the wayes of God amongst us as these are to slaunder them and to join with them in giving credit that with the English hierarchy and liturgy all religion and fear of God is banished out of this Nation where there is neither Episcopall nor Presbyteriall ordination no uniformity of discipline yea no discipline at all no catechizing enjoined or performed no Creed no Decalogue no Lords prayer rehearsed in Churches nor any Scripture publickly read to the people nor the Sacrament of the Eucharist constantly administred thus cloathing what truth there may be in all these with the cloak of rash and uncharitable construction as others do cloth it with the cloak of malice and lying I doubt not but that by your piety and wisdom as you will stop the mouth of slaunder so you will give no occasion to the Reformed and Godly to conceive amiss of your godly proceedings A TABLE Of the CONTENTS Chap. I. OF the nature of power authority That there are but two ways to bring men to yield obedience either by a coactive power or by perswading them by advice and counsell That there is no medium betwixt command and counsell which sheweth that Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is a name without a thing not being exercised by either of them The division of power and of the subordination and coordination of powers Many errours and mistakes are discovered about subordination and coordination of powers That the power called Ecclesiasticall doth signifie nothing and such as it is is subordinate to that of the Magistrate Fol. 1 Chap. II. Of the nature and division of right divine and humane In vain do they call things of divine positive right which are acted by a naturall right such are many church acts Things that are of divine right may be said to be of humane right and on the contrary those things that are of humane right may be said to be of divine right which is an argument that by right power cannot be divided betwixt clergy and laity 25 Chap. III. The nature matter form and author of law The canons and sentences of Church-judicatories have no force of law except they receive it from the sanction of the magistrate The defects in the division of laws into Divine and humane into morall ceremoniall and politick and into Ecclesiasticall and civil 34 Chap. IV. Of the nature of judgement what judgement every private man hath what the magistrate and what ministers synods and church-judicatories They have no definitive judgement as Mr. Rutherfurd asserts but the magistrate hath the greatest share in definitive judgements which is proved by some passages of Mr. Rutherfurd and of Pareus and Rivetus Who is the judge of controversies 44 Chap. V. An examination of the 30. chapter of the confession of faith made by the Rever Assembly of Divines That in their Assembly they assumed no jurisdiction nor had any delegâ—…d to them from the magistrate and therefore were not to attribute it to their brethren That the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is the same with the magistrates jurisdiction Mr. Gillespies reasons examined 53 Chap. VI. Whether Iesus Christ hath appointed a jurisdiction called ecclesiasticall as King and head of his Church Of the nature of the Kingdom of God In what sense the magistrate is head of the Church 65 Chap. VII The strength of Mr. Gillespies reasons to disprove that the magistrate is not chief governour of the church under Christ examined 76 Chap. VIII Mr. Gillespies manifest contradictions in stating the magistrates power in matters of Religion 83 Chap. IX The concessions of Mr. Gillespie which come to nothing by the multitude of his evasions and distinctions The vanity and nullity of his and other mens divisions and distinctions of power Martyr Musculus Gualterus alledged against the naming of a power ecclesiasticall when it is in truth the magistrates power The positions of Maccovius about the power of the magistrate in sacred things not hitherto answered by any 91 Chap. X. Whether the Lord Iesus Christ hath appointed as the Rever Assembly saith officers in government distinct from the magistrate The strength of the place 2 Chron. 19. by them alledged examined That the elders in that place are not church-officers An answer to Mr. Gillespies arguments endeavouring to prove that Iosaphat appointed two courts one ecclesiasticall another civil 108 Chap. XI A case propounded by Mr. Cesar Calandrin which he conceiveth to assert a double jurisdiction examined Of the two courts one of magistracy or externall the other of conscience or internall That ecclesiasticall jurisdiction must belong to one of them or to none 119 Chap. XII Of the nature of calling to the ministery Ministers are not called by men but by God by a succession not of ordination but providence The plea
Lord neither do I â—…sse honour the churches of Scotland then those of France I would fain make all churches and brethren friends without prejudice to the truth which I conceive I can retain inviolable by that temperament I have followed which giveth unto the magistrate his due and to private churches their right which denyeth not the presbyterians a discipline but only groundeth it upon a firmer and steadier foundation then they have hitherto done themselves The Lord reveal these truths which are very much subservient to saving truths to all sorts of people that so the minds of the people of God may be more settled and united to retain the foundation that is in Christ Iesus not by constraint and by an externall coercive jurisdiction but with a ready mind and that others who are otherwise led captive by their errors and ignorance in doctrine but much more swayed by this mystery of iniquity or ecclesiasticall jurisdiction may now by the discovery of this truth get freedom and by it the knowledge of saving truths hid from them because of their bondage Thus the truth of that saying of the Lord Iesus will be more manifest If ye know the truth ye shall be free indeed Did but those of the Romish communion understand that all Papall Episcopall Presbyteriall and Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction which is not subordinate to the power of magistracy is repugnant to Scripture and reason they would soon by the knowledge of this one truth recover their liberty and with it the opportunity of having saving truths taught them lying no longer in shackles for fear of men which though imaginarie ones have kept them in as much captivity as if they had been really of iron For the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and excommunication the product of it put forth and exercised over magistrates and people by inconsiderable men for coercive power have hitherto been like to a child leading about an Elephant with a thred who if he knew his own strength would lead the strongest man that is with a single hair In short all ecclesiasticall jurisdiction without a power of magistracy is like the feathers of an arrow which can never hit nor have a direct motion but with the wood to which it is adjoyned The feathers alone may be made to fly at one but never to hurt or make any impression I will conclude this Preface with the words of Antonius de Dominis lib. 5. de rep cap. 2. who says that all ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is ineffectuall without a power of magistracy Nihil sine potestate laica obtinebimus neminem ecclesiastica potestate possumus extrudere abripere expellere If this which is the substance and the whole drift of my book can be made out to me not to be Scripture and reason I will not obstinatly maintain either this or any other errour but acknowledge it both to God and man as I ought continually all those of my life which as I hope God will forgive me so till I be otherwise taught I crave no pardon either of God or man for holding this which to some is an errour but to me and I hope in Gods good time it shall be so to others as clear a truth as that two and two are four ERRATA Pag. 121. l. 16. read to whom I give thanks Pag. 242. l. 11. dele common Pag. 215. l. 2. read Cornelius Nepos saith Pag. 292. l. 27. read next to the magistrates who have Pag. 311. l. 14. for was read is Pag. 355. l. 2. read supra quam Of the Right of CHVRCHES And of The Magistrates power over them CHAPTER I. OF the nature of power and authority That there are but two wayes to bring men to yield obedience either by a coactive power or by perswading them by advice counsell That there is no medium betwixt command and counsell which sheweth that Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is a name without a thing not being exercised by either of them The division of power and of the subordination and coordination of powers Many errours and mistakes are discovered about subordination and coordination of powers That the power called Ecclesiasticall doth signifie nothing and such as it is is subordinate to that of the Magistrate THe nature of power right command obedience function law judgement are so twisted together and linked that it is not possible to treat of one alone for as the perfection of power is command so power is exercised with lawes by those that have right to it and a function in the state obedience is a yielding to power command lawes counsells and advices The word Potestas power denotes three things Person Right and Office Often it is taken for the person or persons that are the soveraign Magistrate it is also opposite to jus or right thus Tacitus in the third Book of his annals saith that right is weakned when power comes in In a large sense it is defined A faculty to bring any thing to passe either by right or by wrong or thus A faculty in the agent to move it self towards the patient either necessarily or at the will of the agent necessarily in a naturall body but arbitrarily in an intelligence either Divine or Angelicall and humane Authority as it hath relation to man is a faculty in the agent to move it self at the will of the patient for power is exercised over men against their will but authority is over those that willingly yield and are perswaded and convinced yet sometimes power and authority are promiscuously used But philosophers humanists and statists usually ascribe authority to men and writings that put no coercion or force to mens actions thus they attribute great authority to the placita and responsa of wise and prudent men whose judgements dictates and definitions who ever giveth no credit 〈◊〉 is taxed of foolishnesse not of rebellion or disobedience and so to men commendable for their age wisedome prudence and experience as the Heathens did to their Plato Socrates Aristoteles Zeno Princes of Schools who captivated the minds not the bodies of their hearers 'T is in that sense Cicero in his first Book of Offices in the very beginning speaks of the great authority that Cratippus and Athens had though neither of them had power either of legislation or of jurisdiction and in his Epistles he often mentioneth those that were in great favour and authority with Caesar and Pompey although they had no power of jurisdiction over them Albeit Grammarians should put no difference betwixt power authority yet nature custome and the practise of all nations yea the holy Scripture distinguisheth power of jurisdiction and command which imposeth penalties upon the transgressours from that authority which enforceth not the outward man but only worketh upon the soul perswadeth and begetteth belief respect and reverence Power of jurisdiction is alwayes attended with command and followed with obedience either active or passive to the command of the power but authority being for the most part attended with some of
footing since it is not a mere advice nor as they will have it a mere product of coercive power which the very Papists at least those that newly came from amongst them namely Antonius de Dominis conceived to be necessarily joyned with all Ecclesiasticall sentences else that they were mere declarations of the mind These be his words lib. 5. de rep ca. 1. Nos potius Episcopi Min stri declaramus esse excludendum quam actu corporali excludimus we Bishops and Ministers do rather declare that one is deserving to be excluded then we exclude him bodily one being an act of command the other of advice Thus in the 2. chapter he saith that no church can excommunicate without magistracy Nihil sine potestate laica obtinebimus neminem Ecclesiastica potestate possumus extrudere abripere expellere These two jurisdictions the one of advice and counsell the other of magistracy neither of them being like the presbyteriall jurisdiction challenged may be instanced in all kinds of societies families meetings religious or civill whereas our presbyterian brethren cannot so much as produce one single act exercised in a consistory or synod which is not an effect of magistracy or of counsell and advice and is not either compelling the outward man or perswading the inward Thus a father of a family to bring his son to walk in the wayes of God must go about it either by perswasion or by compulsion hale him perforce to church hoping that God may there work upon his heart Thus a private church by the jurisdiction of the keyes and power of perswasion may win a brother but by the other jurisdiction will expell him and put him out of the congregation One thing very considerable and which overthroweth all jurisdiction which steps between the jurisdâ—ctâ—on of magistracy and that of the word which in foro externo in the court of man is counsell and adv ce but in fâ—ro interno in the couâ—t of conscience is command strict injunction with threatning that thing considerable I say is that it is of the nature of the division of power exercised in all societies as of most of the things delivered either in nature philosophy or Scripture that naturally it brancheth into two by which dichotomy most truâ—hs aâ—e discovered Thus naturall philosophy divideâ—h â—…ance into first and second the whole world into heaven and earth sensitive creatures into man and beast rationall and irraâ—…nall thus the Scripture divides Angels into good and bad men into elect and reprobates the Testament into new and old the people of God into Iewes and gentiles the whole man into flesh and spirit new man and old things enjoyed into spirituall and temporall Gods Kingdome into earthly and heavenly And thus to come to our purpose there be two powers one internall the other externall two swords the sword of the word or spirit in the ministery and the sword of magistracy two courts one outward called forum externum governing the outward man and imposing lawes on him the other forum internum governing the conscience perswading and convincing it So for judgement and obedience judgement is either a commanding or counselling advising and may be called judgement of approbation obedience is either to commands or counsells He were here a cunning Oedâ—pus who could find room for Ecclesiasticall court judgement and law or find a medium at least of participation betwixt those two jurisdictions the one coercive or of magistracy the other perswasive and exercised by perswasion such is that which is exercised in the word to which as St. Peter speaketh man yieldeth not by constraint but willingly and with a ready mind Even all actions where art mans wisedome industrie nature and Gods blessing and grace do concur do evidently shew the necessity of this dichotomy and the nullity of what is imagined to be interposed betwixt the power of magistracy and the power of ministery betwixt the power of compulsion and the power of perswasion For example the acts of magistracy are like the acts of a plough-man who hath a command over his ground to plough it dung it then harrow it and scatter his seed but the acts of ministery or rather the acts of God in the ministery by working upon the heart convincing and making the man to follow willingly Gods call are like the other acts which are not so much in the power of the plough-man as in Gods sending the rain upon his ploughed and sown land blessing or frustrating all his past labours This being the nature of power next is to be considered how it is divided and how powers are subordinate or coordinate I could never conceive that power can be branched but into two viz. externall and internall The internall power is either divine or of art the divine power is either naturall or of the word which is either ordinary or extraordinary Ordinary is upon these that are either convinced or hardned the extraordinary is either of prophecy or of miracles that of prophecy is either under the old or the new Testament The externall power is either private or publick Private power is that freedome in every private man or society to act things and in things wherein the publick is little or nothing concerned and no way disturbed which power doth much belong to private churches as we shall see in another place The publick externall power is either soveraign or subordinate and delegated The soveraign is either of legislation or of jurisdiction The subordinate is a power delegated by the soveraign to cities provinces families societies of whatsoever kind as churches schools colledges halls universities corporations so that there is no externall power commanding obedience under some penalty making lawes and compelling the outward man wherewith masters husbands fathers halls corporations societies churches are invested but is derived from the soveraign externall power which we call power of magistracy Here is no more room for ecclesiasticall power then for maritall paternall despoticall as neither for medicall if you will and so for pharmaceuticall military rurall and the like all which are a like subordinate to the soveraign externall power called the power of magistracy for I do conceive that church-power or jurisdiction are as improperly called ecclesiasticall as if the jurisdiction wherewith a colledge of physitians might be invested were called medicall or physicall since a minister a physitian a merchant as such are not invested with jurisdiction which cannot be said of a justice of peace of a constable or of a sergeant who as such are invested with a power and jurisdiction and sure the power of a sergeant might lesse improperly be called sergeantall then that of a church-man ecclesiasticall The coordinate powers when neither of them is subordinate to the other are the power of the word in the ministery and the power of magistracy the one being Gods spirits jurisdiction over the hearts and affâ—ctâ—ons of men the other the magistrates jurisdiction compelling men to an outward act of
magistrate thus the decalogue is as well a law of the magistrate as of God Yea I maintain that a command or law of God hath no force of law in the court of man or in any presbytery synod or assembly whatsoever binding to active or passive obedience except it hath the stamp of magistracy and be published anew by the soveraign magistrate and that no man can be punished legally for robbing and stealing yea not for killing much lesse can he be excommunicated except there be a law of man against robbers and murtherers and that some magistracy impowereth churches or synods to passe a sentence of excommunication 5. This also hath been a great mistake which made many deny a subordination of ecclesiasticall to civil because those that embrace the true religion and live under those that hate them or persecute them endeavour as to have a communion independent from the magistrate so also a jurisdiction 6. Another errour in making the church jurisdiction not subordinate but wholly independent from the magistrate is this assertion easily descending into the minds of those that affect rule and jurisdiction viz. that the end of magistracy is outward peace and quietnesse only and purchasing all means to the attaining of the preservation of temporall life wealth and prosperity having nothing to do with promoting the eternall good and happinesse of the soul But this errour is not only refuted by the very heathens but also by the most learned orthodox Divines both English and others Pareus on the 13. to the Romans dubio 5. saith the end of the magistrate is not only the civil good but also the spirituall good of the subjects that religion may flourish in the church according to the word of God and so Junius Meditat. on the 122. Psalm tom 1. col 721. saith that the magistrate is to procure by divine and humane right the good of the spirituall Kingdom of Christ But Antonius de Dominis lib. 5. de republica ecclesiastica cap. 5. § 1. is very prolix and nervous to prove that he that is invested from God with a power to purchase naturall felicity is also invested with a power to promote the spirituall 7. It is also a great errour to make a coordination of powers seated in the same persons For if it could be imagined that one part of the people were the Church and the other part the Commonwealth they might be also imagined independent one from another thus a society of merchants and a colledge of scholars may be well imagined to be corporations so independent one from the other that none of the society of merchants are part of the colledge and none of the colledge are part of the society But granting that the same persons are members of the society of merchants and of the colledge of scholars the command law discipline of those two corporations as long as they admit the same members must have either a perpetuall conflict and clashing or the command of one corporation must be subordinate to the command of the other or else if they be both coordinate they must also be both equally subordinate to a power set over them both This is the case between the Church and the Commonwealth Granting that the same persons are members of the Commonwealth and of the Church it is not possible to make these two jurisdictions coordinate and yet subsist together in peace love and amity and without one disturbs the other they must joyntly agree to have one power over them or the law injunction and commands of one must be subordinate to the lawes of the other 8. The grandest inconvenience in this coordination of powers and jurisdictions is that the same persons being members of societies under both these powers and submitting to the commands of both shall be in continuall perplexity which to obey if both do not command one thing There is such a communion in mens actions causes relations functions callings commands duties jurisdictions freedoms liberties among those that live under one soveraign power and within the precincts of one jurisdiction that it is impossible that any outward action can be performed in whatever relation a man be considered as husband master father pastor lawyer physitian merchant at home or in church in a synod or in a city or hall except they all are modified ruled and directed by one supreme jurisdiction otherwise the saying of Tacitus would prove true ubi plures imperant nemo obsequitur where there be many coordinate powers there is none found to obey When a magistrate doth command a subject to attend him in the wars this command doth exempt him from the commands and injunctions that may be made to him as he is a son member of a consistory or of a synod or of some other corporation therefore when the King of Scotland in the year 1582. commanded the magistrate of Edenburgh to entertain and feast a French Ambassadour on a set day and the presbytery of Edenburgh to crosse this command had enjoyned a fast upon the same day since both commands could not be obeyed at once by the magistrate of Edenburgh either the magistrates commands must be subordinate to those of the presbytery or the commands of the presbytery must be subordinate to those of the magistrate or else the different commands of both must be subordinate to a third power above both presbytery and magistrate I have brought in my Paraenesis a cloud of witnesses Martyr Musculus Gualterus Iunius Pareus Cassander Hooker Antonius de Dominis proving the necessity that the power called ecclesiasticall should be subordinate to that of the magistrate I will only alledge Musculus in whom we shall see the sense of all the rest loc com de magistratibus The way and nature of government cannot bear that in the same people there be two authentick powers two diverse legislations and dominations except it be by subordination as there is no place for two heads upon one body Learned Dr. Hammond who is neither for Geneva presbytery nor of Erastus opinion nor yet of Musculus Bullingerus Gualterus who made little account of excommunication yet he holds that ecclesiasticall power is subject to the civil magistrate who in all causes over all persons is acknowledged supreme under Christ These be his words in his tract of the power of the keyes p. 87. though by them he overthroweth all power in ministers and Bishops of excommunicating independently from the magistrate which yet he strives to assert against Erastus Mr. Rutherford and Mr. Gillespie think that if it were granted that the magistrate is Christs viceregent it would subvert wholly the grounds upon which ecclesiasticall presbyterian power is built I question whether this concession of Dr. Hammond that the magistrate is the governour of the Church under Christ would not equally unsettle his episcopall excommunication I should in this chapter as I intended at first shew the vanity and nullity of the multitude of divisions and subdivisions of ecclesiasticall
head of the Church WE proceed to examine what the Rever Assembly say that Jesus Christ hath instituted this ecclesiasticall â—…sdiction as King and head of his Church Mr. Gillespie one of their body and therefore the best interpreter of their meaning saith in his 2. book chap. 5. that Jesus Christ hath two Kingdoms 1. a generall as he is the eternall Son of God the head of all principalities powers raigning over all creatures 2. a particular Kingdom as he is mediatour raigning over the church only by which church he understandeth a visible church of saints combined in such a body as is the church of Scotland enjoying the ordinances and the discipline of Christ And of this Kingdom he understandeth Matth. 16. v. 28. There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdom So doth Beza against Erastus who with Mr. Gillespie out of those words of Christ my Kingdom is not of this world concludeth two things 1. that the ecclesiasticall government is distinct from the civill or that of the magistrate 2. that that Kingdom is an aggregation of many churches under one presbytery In the 6. chap. of the same book he is very prolix to prove that Jesus Christ as mediatour and head of the Church hath not appointed the magistrate to be his viceregent in the government of the church in the second acception I confesse that the holy Scripture mentioneth two Kingdoms but that both these be visible ones I deny flatly particularly that Jesus Christ is called King and head of the church in reference to the visible congregations of Christians or that by the body of Christ is meant the visible assembly of those that make outward profession of the Christian religion Let us then consider in this Kingdom of Jesus Christ as mediatour the nature of the King and head of his scepter sword power weapons keyes fullnesse that so we may see if all these qualifications yea if any one of these are proper to any visible church particular and nationall Both Rivet and Reynolds in their comments upon the 110. Psalme make this Kingdom wholly spirituall not of this world much lesse seen in this world though known to be in this world It is that Kingdom which is many times mentioned in the Gospell but never once taken for a visible government of men professing outwardly the name of Christ but for the Kingdom of grace and that government which Christ hath over those whom he ruleth by his spirit of adoption The keyes of this Kingdom are the door of utterance in the ministery whereby men have entrance these keyes keep out from coming in those that are without doors but never put out any that are once in and therefore most absurd it is to ground the power of excommunication upon the power of the keyes committed by Jesus Christ to the Apostles if the Kingdom of which Christ speaketh is the Kingdom of heaven or of grace will they say that an excommunicated person is put oâ— of the Kingdom of grace The scepter and sword of this Kingdom is the word of God The weapons are not carnall nor are they used to the putting a man out by excommunication but to the pulling down the strong holds of sin not by tying a man with church-censures but bringing into captivity his imaginations to the obedience of Christ This truth broke through the darknesse of popery and was acknowledged by those that were oppressed by the Popes tyrannie so in the year 1080. the advocate of the Emperour confut 9. saith that the preaching of Gregory the 7. was new since the church had no other sword then that of the spirit which was the word of God This language was acknowledged by the canonists to be in the mouths of the Popes adversaries who yet kept within the communion of Rome never dreaming of a Wicleff or a Luther as can inter 33. quest 3. Ecclesia non habet gladium nisi spiritualem qui non occidit sed vivisificat The law of this Kingdom is not the discipline or censure of the church but the law both of the Gospell and of faith called also the law of the spirit For by the power of that Kingdom described by the holy Ghost in the new Testament and mentioned in 50. places is not in any of them understood the ecclesiasticall power or any such thing as the power of ministers presbyteries synods to make decrees canons to determine authoritatively to suspend excommunicate and absolve but alwayes is meant that power that translateth from darknesse to light and from the power of satan unto God by which we are made sons of God Ioh. 1. v. 12. by which we are enlightened Act. 26. v. 18. and raised unto newnesse of life The fullnesse of that Kingdom is the saving gifts and graces given to the members The head of this Kingdom is Jesus Christ our King Priest and Prophet ruling by his spirit his subjects which are his members offering satisfying and interceding only for them teaching none savingly but them There is no governour or viceregent of this church but the spirit of God working in the heart by the word preached or read and guiding into all truth Though God hath no visible governours of this Kingdom yet he hath externally many subservient instruments and ministers for the advancing of that Kingdom as magistrates by their jurisdiction pastors by their function all godly people by their generall calling and dutie their persecutions afflictions maladies and particularly the ministers of the Gospell are main agents in Gods hands for the building up of that Kingdom What they know they do is the least part of their ministery they themselves being ignorant what and how they work by it in mens hearts Gods chief minister is Christ in the word the power is the efficacious working of the word the keyes are the openings of the heart to the word or rather the openings of the word to the heart and the receiving of the person into the heavenly fellowship This power is not placed in the ministers but the word which though it is delivered by them not only in a way of beseeching and exhorting but also of commanding yet that jurisdiction is only effectuall on those that of unwilling are rendred willing so that it is rather the jurisdiction of the word then of the minister for the ministers operation in the ministery is like to that of the artists in their chymicall operations where they are rather spectators then actors admovendo agentia passivis for nature and fire are the main agents They are like an husbandman in a vintage who maketh not the wine but ordereth it powring it from one vessel to another This being the nature of the Kingdom and church of God of which Christ is the head and King it remaineth to enquire who is the viceregent of God in governing the visible congregations of Christians meeting about the worship of God Properly
themselves with a power and jurisdiction improperly so called leaving to the magistrate the opposite member of power properly so called which is a silent confession that they have none at all since they can yet find no name for it I have one division more of ecclesiasticall power brought by Amyraldus and some others quite different from the rest being not a dichotomie but a trichotomie not a division into two but three coordinate powers the one belonging to the magistrate the second to lay-elders and deputies of the church and the third appertaining to ministers These three ecclesiasticall powers he maketh to be conspicuous in all ecclesiasticall assemblies and synods where the magistrate hath his ecclesiasticall indirect extrinsecall power as they call it the ministers have their intrinâ—…call direct ecclesiasticall power and the lay-elders have a lesse intrinsecall direct ecclesiasticall power for it hath not found a name yet for it is say they neither of the nature of ecclesiasticall power belonging to the magistrate nor of that which is proper to ministers but a mungrell ecclesiasticall power in regard they cannot perform by their power those acts that belong either to magistracy or ministery For besides that they cannot preach and administer the Sacraments Amyraldus will not allow them any voice but consultative not deliberative and only in matters of discipline and ecclesiasticall policy and that power they say they have common with the magistrate who over and above hath his ecclesiasticall power which neither the ministers nor lay-elders have any thing to do with Lastly the ministers have their ecclesiasticall power distinct from the ecclesiasticall power of both The bare relating of these divisions of power and modifications of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is sufficient to confute them so that there is little need of authority to witnesse their nullity and vanity Yet three grave and learned divines namely Martyr Musculus and Gualterus would have the name and the thing to be abolished Martyr loc com 13. class 4. § 9. sheweth the little need of multiplying powers whenas that of the magistrate is sufficient and that David Salomon Iosias being civil magistrates did think that religion belonged to their care and Constantinus Theodosius Iustinianus had no greater thought then to constitute the true church of God Musculus is yet more pregnant loc com de magistratibus what hinders I pray but that this may be ecclesiasticall which is done neither by the church it self nor in the name and by the power of the church but is done commanded and enjoyned by the magistrate within the church in the name and power of God and to procure the good of the church and represse the evils committed in the church A little lower he hath these expresse and golden words the way and nature of government cannot bear that in the same people there be two authentick powers two diverse legislations and dominations except it be by subordination as there is no place for two heads in one body Gualterus Homil. in 1 Cor. 5. is no lesse expresse They distinguish betwixt ecclesiasticall and politicall jurisdiction but this distinction is taken out of the shop of the papists for it is not to be had in the Scripture for it is plain that the same way must be observed in the New as in the old Testament And a little lower The same then must be observed in the new Testament and no need there is that the ministers of the word should have a peculiar senate taking upon them what belongeth to the magistrate they may be censors of manners such as are needfull in a greater commonwealth where ordinary magistrates cannot attend all businesses but these are created by the magistrates authority and ought to do all by his command and not ly a peculiar power of their own distinct from that of the magistrate Such passages and many more I alledge in my Paraenesis p. 16. and 17. No marvell if those that recede from the plainnesse of the Scripture have knit themselves such nets and windings of powers in which while they think to be safeâ— they lose themselves With the help of those distinctions and divisions of power M. Gillespie stretcheth and shortneth his ecclesiasticall power as a leathern point sometimes lengthening it so far as that the magistrate may take hold of it by one end and sometimes giving both ends and the middle into the hands of the ministers I will alledge one or two more places out of Mr. Gillespies book by which his art will appear in extending and contracting his ecclesiasticall power one while making the magistrates and ministers to share the power between them another while giving to either all or nothing Pag. 263. speaking of the extent of the ecclesiasticall power of the magistrate he is usefull saith he and helpfull to the Kingdom of Christ the mediatour magistracy being serviceable to purge the church of scandall to promote the course of the Gospell and the edification of one another But how not perfectly but protanto not every way but more suo not intrinsecally but extrinsecally not primarily but secondarily not directly but ex consequentâ— not sub formalitate scandali but sub formalitate criminis or not under the notion of scandall but of crime I alledge this not to confute it having elsewhere shewed the weaknesse and nullity of such divisions what a lame and impotent thing is eccleâ—asticall power that needeth so many woodden legs and crutches But I pray doth not the magistrate punish blasphemy as a scandall and a contagious offence communicative to others Pag. 264. The coercive part in compelling the obstinate and unruly to submit to the presbyteriall and synodicall sentence belongs to the magistrate not as if the magistrate had nothing to do but to be an executioner of the pleasure of church officers or as if he were by a blind and implicite faith to constrain all men to stand to their determination God forbid The magistrate must have his full liberty to judge of that which he is to compell men to do to judge of it not only judicio apprehensivo by understanding and apprehending aright what it is but judicio discretivo by the judgement of Christian prudence and discretion examining by the word of God the grounds reasons and warrants of the thing that he may in faith and not doubtingly adde his authority thereto in which judging he doth judicare not judicem agere that is he is judex suarum actionum he judgeth whether he ought to adde his civil authority to this or that which seemeth good to church-officers and doth not concur therewith except he be satisfied in his conscience Whoever examineth narrowly the extent of power which he yields to belong to the magistrate will soon discover that all the ecclesiasticall power is to be managed by the magistrate 1. He maketh all synodicall or presbyterian power to be of no force without a coercive power 2. that the magistrate must have his full liberty to judge of
constitutions that are made about them are acts of the major part of the members are valid not because they are lawes of Christ and approved to every ones conscience but because like lawes and orders of other societies they do oblige as such and as consented unto in the making of them by the major part of the members though it may be the minor part were in the right for as the acts of a magistrate commanding things directly commanded by God are the magistrates acts so those acts performed in a particular church though commanded expressely by God in as much as they require externall obedience either actively or passively are acts of that magistracy set up in that church I find in a result of a synod in New-England printed at the end of the book of Mr. Cotton of the Covenant of Grace some conclusions wholly consonant to what I now write in this chapter of the two kinds of acts that are performed in every particular church the one done by them as church-members the other being an effect of magistracy set up in every particular church considered not as a church but as a society The first kind of acts is proper to those church-members who by any power of magistacy are not put upon stronger engagements of oredience then if there had never been any The second is exercised by magistracy either in the church or out of the church against the obstinate and unruly and such as need to be compelled I find the synod speak much to that purpose namely p. 40. the collectour saith from them that for remedying disorders and taking away or preventing grosse errors there must be a power of restraint and coercion used and in regard that every particular church is to be as well considered in the quality of a civil society as a society of church-members CHAPTER XX. That the power attributed to private churches by the reverend dissenting brethren doth very well accord with the power of magistracy in matters of religion as it is held by Erastus Bullingerus Musculus Grotius Mr. Selden and Mr. Coleman This same is proved by reason and by the testimony of Mr. Burroughs writing the sense of all his brethren as also by the practise of the churches in New-England WHen at first I undertook to write of this subject I had no other designe but to assert the nullity of a double externall jurisdiction and to prove that there being no such thing neither in Scripture nor reason as an ecclesiasticall power all jurisdiction that was not united under and appertained not to the magistrate was not a power of coercion was no jurisdiction Neither was I then lesse dissenting from the church-way and power retained by the rever brethren of the congregation then from the presbyterian brethren and the rather because I saw both parties carried with as much eagernesse of opposition against Erastus and Mr. Coleman as they were among themselves besides not fancying to my self otherwise but that all jurisdiction called ecclesiasticall and assumed by whatsoever society of men either single or made up by the aggregation of many societies which was not subordinate to the magistrates power was alike against reason and Scripture But being not able to study my main matter intended without enquiring into the nature of the power that both parties assumed to themselves I found that the tenets of the brethren of the congregationall way could very well accord with mine and which was not yet by any considered that the right of particular churches as the dissenting brethren hold might very well consist with that measure of power that Erastus Bullingerus Musculus Gualterus Grotius Mr. Selden Mr. Coleman allowed to the magistrate in matters of religion and over churches and that independency of private churches I mean independency from presbyterian classicall and synodicall judicatories doth no way hinder their right and liberty nor their dependency on the magistrate nor cutteth short the magistrate of the soveraign power he ought to have overall societies and persons and in all causes and matters Lastly I found that this way of reconciliation was most agreeable with Scripture reason the practise of the Jewes and of the primitive church of Christians besides was confessed so by many learned men who though seemingly otherwise affected and carried by more heat then knowledge of what was passed or held in this Island have notwithstanding in their tracts about the power of churches and discipline laid the same grounds that the dissenting brethren have delivered I need not be very long in proving by reason that this reconciliation betwixt the advocates of the magistrates power in matters of religion and those that plead for the right of churches is already made to our hands by what I have already handled I adde further these following considerations 1. Since every private church hath within it self a power of magistracy and that all magistracy in whatever society it be seated is subordinate to the magistrate of those societies it doth consequently follow that that magistracy wherewith every private church is invested is also subordinate to the magistrate for as I have demonstrated since no society of church-members no more then of citizens merchants physicians and the like can be imagined without lawes discipline and power of restraint and coercion so neither can it be imagined that such a power is not dependent on the magistrate for if a member of a society be obstinate and refractory and will not be ruled but by coercion and compulsion it be more then church-members as such can do to reduce him by exhortation and good advice then church-members must act also by a power of magistracy either assumed or delegated however it be that power of magistracy is subordinate to the soveraign magistrate 2. It is a maxime in Scripture Philosophie and common reason that theorems or propositions that are true asunder are no way contradictory one to another Now these two following propositions are of an undeniable truth viz. The magistrate is a soveraign governour over all persons and societies and in all matters and causes whether they pertain to religion or no and this Every particular church hath a right and power to govern it self without any dependence either on other churches or church-judicatories Each of these propositions being considered as true asunder must also be very consistent and no way clashing one with the other 3. That the right of churches may well stand with the power of the magistrate may appear by example of many societies as families corporations halls whose intrinsecall power of magistracy agreeth exceeding well with that of the magistrate over them for none doubteth but every father of a family hath a power to govern his children houshold and servants as he listeth being in his own as it were house a magistrate and a Priest yet none hitherto questioned but that paternall and oeconomicall powers are subordinate to the power of the magistrate for even the civil law and so
churches would there be even 33. for so many were overcome but should all these 33. Kings be subdued these 33. Churches would cease to be independent on each other and in stead of 33. churches depending each on their magistrate one nationall church should be moulded of the same extent of power as the magistrate that ruleth over them CHAPTER XXII That the greatest opposers of the dissenting brethren namely Salmasius Amyraldus and others have laid down the same grounds for the right and power of particular churches and so confuted rather their own fancies then invalidated the tenets of the brethren The question whether Rome be a true church briefly resolved That Amesius and Iohn Mestrezat late minister of Paris in their writings have held the power of private churches to be independent from any church-judicatory THe spirits of men are now a little more calm and not so eager either at home or abroad and the quarrell not so fierce with the independents as it bath been these 15. years I having my self been a poor instrument to disabuse some of my country-men who partly by their misunderstanding paitly by the false reports and ill will of the common enemy to all goodness good men were possessed of very harsh opinions and conceits of them passed a strange censure upon them as enemies to all order and discipline and men of dangerous and pernicious tenets to all humane societies The very children amongst them did question whether they were shaped like other men Amyraldus made a great book of Invectives against them and turned them into Sodomites franticks and enemies of all order and discipline Salmasiâ—s and Maiesius were no lesse bitter against them A nationall synod net at Charenton where Amyraldus had a standing but no vote condemned them But as this synod condemned them as the councill of Trent did the Lutherans before they heard them so did all these authouâ—s I have named fall upon them without mercy before they had any particular knowledge of them or any certain information of their supposed pernicious manners Yet for all that those very men that wrote so much against them as they refuted rather their own fancies then any thing those they call independents believed so they did handle this matter of the nature and power of the church and that of the magistrate over it much to the advantage of those that they made as black as they could namely Amyraldus in declaring both his own sense and that of the ancient church next to the Apostles hath laid the same ground-work for the parity and independency of churches as the reverend brethren dissenting from the assembly of Divines have done He alledgeth Vignier a French authour writing above 70. years agone highly valued as the truest historiographer that ever put pen to paper by the most learned and pious Prelat Dr. Usher in his ecclesiasticall history relating the opinion of Irenaeus Eusebius and Nicephorus concerning the state of the government of the church soon after the Apostles The form of the government in this age was almost democraticall for every church had equall power to teach the word of God to administer the sacraments to absolve and excommunicate hereticks and those that led a d'ssolute life to elect to call and to ordain ministers to depose them when occasion required to erect schools to call synods to ask the opinion of others upon doubts and controver sies I find the centuriators of Magdeburg cent â— cap 7. to have these or equivalent words with little difference but that they wrote in Latin and Vignier in French Here then we may see our brethrens sense 1. that every particular church is independent free to govern it self and to exercise all church acts not rejecting a consociation with other churches but such as equals have among themselves 2. for the power of synods they acknowledge none nor judiciall authority only a liberty to admonish advise and counsell In the 8. chapter he hath a long passage whereof the drift is 1. that particular churches are no lesse free asunder then provinces and towns before they join in a confederation 2. that all aggregation and consociation is as free for churches as for free towns or cities 3. that a particular church for example that of Saumur considered as not united by any voluntary confederacy to other churches oweth the same duty of respect to the orders and constitutions of the churches of Leyden Heydelberg and Basil as to to those of Paris or Rouen 4. that the power of synods over churches is of the same humane and civil right with the power of a judiciall senatover cities and towns Pag. 144. he hath these words The Church and the Commonwealth have some things that seem common and they may be almost alâ—ke managed both by ecclesiast call assemblâ—es and by the powâ—r of the magistrate How doth this agree with what we have heard him say that it were an horrible confusion for the church and state to be governed by the same men Pag. 198. and 199. he speaketh of the authority of synods in the language of our brethren It is true that the meer authority of councils ought not to move us to receive a point of religion the knowledge of the truth of the thing ought to be the chief motive and ground But we have him very expresly teaching his scholars and auditors at Saumur that the appellation of a true visible church doth properly belong to a particular church I shall cite his words Disp de ecclesiae nomine definitione thes 28. in English I know that a communion and as it were a confederation of many the like societies which are associated either by the same use of tongue or the same form of Commonwealth or else by the same government and discipline is called a particular church thus we speak of the French English and German churches as of particular churches to distinguish them from that universall society of Christians which comprehends all nations that bear the name of Christians but as we said before the word church is not proper to the society of all Christians as it is to the particular assemblies of Christians so that consequently we say that the word church is not to be said in the like manner of a consociation of many particular churches Let then that communion which is between the churches of France be said to be a church and that the church is a confederation of many churches for if taken according to the use of the holy Scripture St. Paul calleth the severall particular churches which were in Achaia not by the name of the church of Achaia or the Achaian church but of the churches of Achaia A passage very considerable which force of turth hath drawn from the mouth of the greatest enemy to the brethren for their greatest advocate could not say more in justification of what they have alwayes urged about the nature of the church but could never be heard till of late viz.
only upon two or three considerable places out of the said Review of the Councill of Trent that one would think had been spoken by Frastus or Mr. Coleman In the 3. book cap. 11. he hath these words If the Prence be learned and capable what reason â—s there to exclude him from presidency It were indeed more beseeming and becoming his dignity to let the Bishops aâ—spâ—te yea one of them to manage and order the action or such as he himself will chuse resâ—…ving to himself the presidency yea the determination the confirmation and execution after he hath viewed and understood all the importance and consequence is too great when it concerneth salvation a Prince hath no lesse interest then a Prlest Here we have a Paput granting that the magistrate is not only to preside in synods but also to have the last determination and judgement of all-debates In the 7. book ch 6. he ascribeth a function but no jurisdiction to the clergy and pastors and he hath this passage worthy to be written in golden letters for it doth disannull and make void all consistoriall classicall and synodicall canons sentences and definitions which are no acts of the magistrate Kings ought not to meddle with the administration of the Sacraments nor with the business of ceremonies or preaching or other ecclesiasticall ministeriall acts but for appointing of the order of ceremonies purging out of abuses extirpation of schism and heresies church-policy and the like they may they ought and they have alwayes done it either by putting their own hands to the work or by commanding of it or else by appointing and constituting lawes statutes and ordinances The authour did here only forget to tell us by what power the magistrate must do this Is it by a politicall or ecclesiasticall power direct or indirect intrinsecall or extrinsecall None but Mr. Gillespie could tell us Sure he that takes all and doeth all by his own power and authority needs no co-partners in the managing of his power but delegates and substitutes in the exercise of it CHAPTER XXVI The description of excommunication in terms received by most of our opposites though otherwise variously defined by them That for four thousand years no such excommunication was in use either among the heathens or the Iewes An answer to some objections That the legall uncleannesse was no type of the morall That the Priests judging of the leprosy is no plea for excommunication nor for ecclesiasticall jurisdiction ALthough I made this subject the greatest part of my Latin book yet I had much more to say then I did write purposing one time or other to discover that excommunication hath been the principall and main tool in the hands of the man of sin to build up the Roman Hierarchie or that dominion which the Pope hath procured himself in all states and Empires round about him which is the very mystery of iniquity spoken of by S. Paul To avoid prolixity therefore intending here sut an extract I will strive to contract my self give but a breviary in few chapters of what I designe if God gives me life in another tongue I must first state what my opposites mean by excommunication that by the description they make of it I may with lesse difficulty make good that it is repugnant to reason Scripture and the practise of all nations heathens Iewes yea of many Christians in all ages for except they give it me themselves it is as impossible for me to delineate it as to give the true definition of purgatory or of limbus patrum for all parties are not yet agreed what the exclusion is from and by whom and what men are excommunicable For some hold that excommunication at least the lesse is from the Eucharist as the greater is from the assembly of Christians others not only from the externall communion but also from the internall Some hold that only Bishops yea that one only Bishop may excommunicate as Ambrose did Theodâ—sius some think that pâ—esâ—yters and ministers may do it and of these some say that one may do it others say there must be three at least Caâ—vin and some others hold excommunication is vâ—…dâ— except it be the act of a whose pâ—…vâ—…church Many are of opinion thaâ— thâ— pâ—…b tâ—…y without the concurrence of the people may excourmunicate As for the subject or object oâ—â—xcommunication some think that Kings and maâ—…rates as well as any other 〈◊〉 châ—members may â—e exâ—ommunicated otheâ—s eâ—eâ—…t them Those that make three communions according to the three severall acceptions of Church in Scripture say that excommunication is only an exclusion or a putting out of the communion which is amongst members of a 〈◊〉 church others that it is an â—xclusion â—…t of the communion of the whole Catholick 〈◊〉 â—huâ—ch whereby they warrant thâ— power of the Pope in excommâ—n cating Emperours and Kings who since they are members of the Cathâ—…k church may be put out of the communion by the pallor within that communion But some hold that the vertue of excommunication â—xâ—…s no further thâ—n the jurisdiction of the maâ—…ate where the excommunication is pronounced There being such diversity of opinions amongst our opposites about the true notion of excommunication it is not possible for any of them to give a good account and description of excommunication to satisfy all much â—…sse can I do it yet must I give some description of it allowable as I conceive â—y most of them It is a judiciall act or sentence of excluding scandâ—lous persons and offenders from some church-priviledges by church-men or church-members invested with a power of jurisdiction distinct from the power of the magistrate which sentence ought not to be reviowed or voided but either by the same power that first gave the sentence or by a superiour judicatory in eadâ—m serie as they call it of the same kind and nature if any is to be had This description I trow will go near to be received by all the patrons of excommunication even by those that make excommunication no lesse a saving ordinance then the preaching of the word and the administration of the Sacraments as the â—ever Divines have defined and determined in their assembly at Westminster Now of this excommunication I â—hall here give this short account 1. That for four thousand years no such excommunication was in use either among the heathens or the Jewes 2. That at that time when some think it had a beginning even when the Jewes were carried into captivity it did not begin 3. That there is no ground for such an excommunication communication nor practise in the new Testastament 4. That soon after Christ and the Apostles time excommunication begun and was mainly subservient to the working of the mystery of iniquity 5. Excommunication being retained by the reformers did occasionally strengthen the mystery of iniquity For the first it is easy to shew that there was no such excommunication among the heathens as we have described It is
skill annexed to their office and so they did but as physitians who are best able to judge of the pestilence yet are only to give their judgement but not to separate any one from the rest of men by their jurisdiction no more then the Priests did CHAPTER XXVII That neither in the time of Ezra such an excommunication began That the casting out of the synagogue did not answer that excommunication That there is no ground for it nor practise of it in the new Testament SOme are of opinion that excommunication had its beginning in Ezra's chap. 7. v. 27. and Nehemiahs times Nehem. 10. v. 29. and ch 13. v. 25. where Aben Ezra expoundeth I cursed them of the two kinds of excommunication Niddui and Cherem though others question it and say that these three kinds of excommunication Niddui Cherem and Schaâ—natha were not invented of two hundred years after However it is certain as some Rabbins observe that in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah something like excommunication begun for the people being led captive and wanting their wonted magistrate and usuall legall proceedings and having no power within themselves to keep up their religion without mixing with the heathen or to restrain those that would run after Idols the best-minded people yea most of the nation who as yet had not consulted with themselves how far they were to persevere in the religion they were born and brought up in did body themselves into severall synagogues where they bound themselves mutually by a sacred oath some say they broke bread upon it to keep the law of Moses and not to join themselves by marriages to the heathens and to hold close to the customs and constitutions of their elders and ancestours even of those that were the keepers of such a confederate discipline and were to see all things performed according to oath or covenant and to take order that whosoever did break it should suffer the penalty imposed by the discipline These synagogues supplyed the defect both of magistracy and of all those godly meetings which were kept every sabbath-day in the houses of Prophets for in them not only the law of Moses was read and expounded and prayers made but also all those causes and matters which usually were handled and determined in higher and lower courts or Sanedrims were adjudged so far as the Princes under whom they lived gave them liberty and enlarged or shortned their priviledges for sometimes they were not permitted to put any man to death sometimes they were allowed even out of Judea to have their Ethnarcha or Prince of the people who did not so much govern the countrey as the nation Hence we are satisfied how the chief Priests came to give Paul power to lay hold on the Jewes living out of Judea and bring them captive to Jerusalem for they could not have given such a commission to apprehend a Gentile Amongst other penalties that the severall synagogues dispersed in Judea Aegypt Greece Pontus and Galatia inflicted casting out of the synagogue was one The Rabbins say for the Scripture is silent in it that this casting out comprehended many degrees of excommunication so that when they were permitted to put to death to be put in Cherem was thought as much as to dye But what ever were the degrees or species of excommunication and by what title so ever called and distinguished among the Jewes it is certain that none of these censures inflicted by the synagogues or by the keepers of their liberties were of the nature of the excommunication we have described in the precedent chapter For 1. These synagogues were a mixt assembly of men betwixt a corporation and a church and had not within their body a jurisdiction of Priests and Levites distinct from the rest of the synagogue for the high Priest was a long time the chief magistrate 2. There being other censures inflicted besides casting out of the synagogue which they make excommunication as stoning burning whipping cutting of limmes as learned Mr. Despagne tells us in his judicious piece of the Harmony of times there is no reason at all to make one censure more ecclesiasticall then any of the rest as if casting out was a censure inflicted by churchmen and whipping and cutting of limmes were civil censures inflicted by others Sure a magistrate by the same power that he causeth a cutpurse to be whipt also banisheth a seditious man so were all penalties in those synagogues acts of the same power and the same men and equally using force upon the body for as yet they knew no such distinction of powers and censures nor were the distinctions of ecclesiasticall and civil spirituall and temporall found out 3. Those that were cast out of the synagogue were alike restrained from church and from Commonwealth-priviledges the church and the Commonwealth being not yet taken for two distinct bodies 4. We do not read that those that were put out of the synagogue were kept off from the Temple and from being partakers of the same mysteries that others not put out of the synagogue enjoyed which sheweth that excommunication was not answerable to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or casting out of the synagogue for those that in the synagogue had power to put one out of it had not power to bar him either from killing the passeover in the temple or from eating of it at his own home or from being partaker of all other sacrifices and ceremonies in the Temple Christ and his Apostles taught daily in the Temple though excommunicated and put out of the Jewes synagogues 5. Neither do we find to the contrary but that a man put out of one synagogue might in the same town or countrey be entertained by another synagogue for Gemara Babvionica saith that he that was excommunicated in one town was not thought excommunicated in another 6. Many Rabbins say that one private man used to excommunicate and absolve another and hereupon some are ready to say that Jesus Christ related to that Matth. 18. when he said Let him be to thee c. as if he had said Since he will not hearken to thy good advice nor that of two or three nor yet to the church thy last refuge is to excommunicate him in thy private name and as to thy self only having nothing farther to do with him And in that manner will they have the 40. men who had conspired to kill Paul to have excommunicated one another in case any one had been slack in the enterprise Now let us see what plea there is for excommunication in the new Testament We have shewed that the Christians succeeding the Jewes retained by the same confederation of discipline under a magistrate no friend to them the same power of magistracy as they though not in that high measure of jurisdiction because the Christians were alwayes more persecuted and never had so large priviledges and liberties granted them as the Jewes had but yet as little as they had they could do that which
for succession is Romanish Ministers are no successours in their ministery to the Iudaicall Priests but to the Prophets 133 Chap. XIII The nature of the ministers power and of that of binding and loosing the power of the keyes Amyraldus and Mr. Lightfoots judicious exposition of the power of binding and loosing The power of governing and ruling is not the ecclesiasticall contended for Mr. Gillespies arguments answered 142 Chap. XIV That the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing are not committed to all church-officers but to the ministers of the Gospell only 155 Chap. XV. That God hath not given to the church-officers of the Gospell a certain platform of government and that it is arbitrary and of humane institution and therefore not to be administred by a power distinct from the humane 161 Chap. XVI The 31. chapter of the confession made by the Rever Assembly examined The use of synods Two things are humbly represented first that for a re-union of jurisdictions over all persons and in all causes a convocation made up of ministers only be re-established during the sitting of Parliament the second is that ministers may be put into the same capacity as all other ranks of free-born people to sit and vote in Parliaments Of the power of synods and that of the magistrate in calling of them The synod of the Apostles was extraordinary not exemplary The exception of the brethren of Scotland against the 2. article of the 31. chapter of the confession examined The uses and abuses of synods that they are not the way to compose differences in matters of religion if their canons are beyond counsells and advices 166 Chap. XVII That the Iewish Church-officers had not a jurisdiction distinct from that of the magistrate Mr. Gillespies distinction that they were not materially but formally distinct examined The argument of Amyraldus that though they had a distinct jurisdiction yet the example of the church of the Iewes is no pattern to the Christian church discussed and proved to be of no validity 192 Chap. XVIII The cause of mistakes in stating the nature of the church and calling that the true church which is not Three acceptions of the word Church in holy writ The meaning of the word Church Matth. 18. v. 17. 206 Chap. XIX That a particular assembly of Christians meeting in one place about the worship of God is the only true visible church mentioned in Scripture That that church considered as an assembly of Christians bringeth forth other kinds of acts then it doth considered as a society of men by which the nature and extent of the power of a private church is made clear and evident 213 Chap. XX. That the power attributed to private churches by the reverend dissenting brethren doth very well accord with the power of magistracy in matters of religion as it is held by Erastus Bullingerus Musculus Grotius Mr. Selden and Mr. Coleman This same is proved by reason and by the testimony of Mr. Burroughs writing the sense of all his brethren as also by the practise of the churches in New-England 222 Chap. XXI That a church made up of many particular churches under one presbytery invested with a judiciall power over them is not of the institution of Christ 234 Chap. XXII That the greatest opposers of the dissenting brethren namely Salmasius Amyraldus and others have laid down the same grounds for the right and power of particular churches and so confuted rather their own fancies then invalidated the tenets of the brethren The question whether Rome be a true church briefly resolved That Amesius and Iohn Mestrezat late minister of Paris in their writings have held the power of private churches to be independent from any church-judicatory 242 Chap. XXIII The consistency of the right and power of private churches with the magistrates power in ordering publick worship proved by the example of the Iewes that they had through all the land particular convocations synagogues or churches called also colledges or schools where the Prophets and sons of the Prophets taught especially on the sabbath-day that they were independent from any church-judicatory How synagogues were altered from their first institution and that being converted into Christian churches they retained the same right power and way of government 251 Chap. XXIV That the Christian churches under heathens were governed by a confederate discipline or a power of magistracy as the synagogues were appointing men which Ambrose calls elders to decide such matters as otherwise were to come under the magistrates cognizance This practise is grounded upon 1 Cor. 6. v. 1 2 c. and confirmed by Origen Iustin Martyr Ambrose and Mr. Lightfoot That the power of these elders continued still under Christian Emperours with some alteration they erecting in lieu of them Episcopall courts That all church-power was the Emperours power That the very heathen magistrates knew no other but that all power was annexed to them 267 Chap. XXV That ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as it is held by the Romish church better agreeth with reason and the letter of the Scripture then that of the presbyterian brethren That some Romanists have ascribed more power to the magistrate in sacred things then the presbyterian brethren 287 Chap. XXVI The description of excommunication in terms received by most of our opposites though otherwise variously defined by them That for four thousand years no such excommunication was in use either among the heathens or the Iewes An answer to some objections That the legall uncleannesse was no type of the morall That the Priests judging of the leprosy is no plea for excommunication nor for ecclesiasticall jurisdiction 298 Chap. XXVII That neither in the time of Ezra such an excommunication began That the casting out of the synagogue did not answer that excommunication That there is no ground for it nor practise of it in the new Testament 307 Chap. XXVIII That the whole context Matth. 18. v. 15 16 17 and 18. maketh nothing for excommunication neither Iudas non-admission if granted to the Eucharist nor the delivering of the incestuous person to Satan nor yet the self-examination required 1 Cor. 11. 316 Chap. XXIX That excommunication is contrary to common sense and reason 326 Chap. XXX That excommunication was mainly subservient to the working of the mystery of iniquity That the corrupting of the doctrine of the Eucharist made way for excommunication 337 Chap. XXXI The History of excommunication from the first reformation from Popery how it was received in Geneva but not settled without disputes and clashings betwixt the consistory and the magistrate 342 Chap. XXXII A continuation of the History of excommunication in France the Low-Countreys Scotland the Palatinate How it came to pass that amongst reformed states the Scottish ecclesiasticall jurisdiction ascended to such a height What plea the reformed churches in France have for excommunication That it is more justifiable among them then in churches under an orthodox magistrate 353 Chap. XXXIII The judgement of some
by their practise for they assumed no jurisdiction but having perfected the Confession of Faith the Catechisme platform of government they presented them to the Parliament under the name of humble advice for they were not to determine any thing authoritatively albeit they pretend no lesse was due unto them as they speak in the 31. chapter sect 3. that ministers in synods may determine authoritatively matters of religion 3. But both the power which was delegated to the Assembly and the exercise of that power during their sitting at Westminster being a lively representation of the extent of power which all councels synods under an orthodox magistrate ever enjoyed or ought to have I wonder much they would ascribe judiciall authority to ministers in synods which they themselves had not never look't for were not to have and which they never saw practised before in any assemblies convocated by the magistrate 4. Had the Lord Jesus Christ instituted a jurisdiction distinct and independent from the magistrate they were to disclaim that ordinance which delegated a power which was none of their own but was derived immediatly from Christ not by the intervention and the chanell of the magistrate unto themselves as ministers of Christ and if any ordinance before their sitting was to be expected it was not to be directed to the ministers but to the people who were to be enjoyned to suffer the ministers to exercise that jurisdiction which they authoritatively challenge from Jesus Christ 5. Had the jurisdiction of the Assembly been acknowledged the magistrate as our brethren the Scots speak should have submitted to all resolutions of the Assembly being no longer humble advices but canons decrees and lawes made authoritatively by the Governours of churches under Iesus Christ But what sense can be given to these words when they say there is a government distinct from the magistrate Is it such a distinction as is betwixt subordinates or betwixt coordinates If the magistrates power and the presbyterian power are coordinates each must needs be independent one from the other which how inconsistent it is under one magistrate we have discussed in another place If these powers be subordinate it must be one of these three wayes 1. in coercive power 2. in judgement or judiciall determinations that are to passe for lawes obliging all sorts of people to obedience either active or passive 3. in the affinity of power in nature and definition which necessarily imports subordination betwixt them 1. For matter of coercive power the ecclesiasticall having none they must be beholden to another power which indeed makes it to be power all externall power and jurisdiction being but childrens play ens rationis a bubble a name without a thing without a power of coercion 2. For judgement if ecclesiasticall men cannot execute their power without the magistrate the question will be whether he shall execute their injunctions as a judge and interpreter or as a sergeant and executioner not interpreting the commands of the court but fulfilling them with a blind obedience and judgement for there is no medium betwixt these two If as a judge then he ought to judge of the judgements of ministers ere he doth command them to be observed and so in a manner all determinations of ministers will be but counsels and advices seeing before they have force of law and of rule they must receive the ultimate judgement and approbation from the magistrate 3. Subordination of powers implieth affinity of definition and nature betwixt the subordinates as Surgerie being subordinate to Medicine proveth the affinity betwixt Medicine and Surgery Yea if subordinate jurisdictions stand in pari gradu and in equall distance from the power they are subordinate unto it argueth an identity of jurisdictions among them as if the jurisdiction of a colledge of physitians and of a corporation of merchants be both subordinate to one magistrate it is manifest that the jurisdiction of that colledge and of that corporation are but one as springing from one head of jurisdiction thus if the jurisdictions of a church and of a corporation are of equall distance in subordination from one spring-head of jurisdiction no doubt the jurisdiction of that church and of that corporation are but one jurisdiction Now that the nature of the jurisdiction of pastors churches and synods is the same with that of magistracy needeth not to be coordinate with it it is evident by many proofs 1. There is the same use of judgement prudence and discretion as by the same yard one may measure cloth silk and thred so may the same wise politicall head and the same prudence and discretion govern a state a church and a family Dionysius the tyrant used to say he did employ the same art in governing his school at Corinth and his Kingdom of Sicily 2. There is the same nature of law in both jurisdictions for the nature of the law consisteth not in its being just equall and honest but in its being published by him or them that are invested with magistracy The better men that is not the wiser and the most rationall but the richer and the most potent give law to the rest The philosophers permit us to weigh and interpret their lawes but the magistrate enjoyneth blind obedience to his Seneca saith that the magistrates law doth not dispute but commandeth and Tullie in his thâ—…d book de natura Deorum saith I am to receive from thee O philosopher satisfaction from reason but I am to yield to the lawes that our ancestours have delivered us though they give no reason In like manner all presbyterian synods namely the generall assembly of Scotland do not give so much leave to inferiour ecclesiasticall judicatories or private persons to examine their decrees by a judgement of discretion as those of Beroea took to themselves when they examined St. Pauls doctrine and searched the Scripture to know whether it was so as he preached for their ecclesiasticall constitutions have force of law only because they have the sanction of an ecclesiasticall assembly and are not to be disputed by any inferiour judicatory whereas the nature of an ecclesiasticall law should be quite different from the civil viz. that it should not be the product of a jurisdiction compelling or requiring to assent or obey except the inward man be perswaded and convinced It may be our presbyterian brethren will say that for example excommunication hath no further validity of sentence then as it is just and done deservedly which indeed proves the nullity of all excommunications for all being done in the name of Christ all must needs be just and valid and every one excommunicating in the name of Christ should excommunicate infallibly and his excommunication should be an effect of an unerring judgement which till it be known to be infallible a man may justly question the validity of his excommunication 3. In this also there is a great affinity and agreement betwixt the jurisdiction they call ecclesiasticall