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
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
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
this old form saith he hath remained to the having even in our dayes a medley of clergy and laity in our courts of Parliament But I foresee that some of the presbyterian brethren will take me at advantage for saying that ministers may vote in synods and there being invested with judiciall authority make canons lawes and constitutions which bind churches to obedience for if they may have that judiciall power in Parliaments which doth oblige all men and societies and so churches to obedience why may not they have the same right power in synods I hope the rever brethren will not so require me for my pains in being their advocate retorting my plea made in their behalf against my self But I willingly grant that the ministers of the Gospell have alike power of sitting and voting in synods and in supreme courts of the magistrate but how viz. if they be called to it by the magistrate and so their acts whether they sit in synods or Parliaments are a production of the magistrates jurisdiction delegated to them and as such they oblige all men societies and churches Besides as I said ministers sitting in Parliaments and synods do discourse and debate matters touching doctrine church-discipline as ministers of the Gospell but they reduce what they discoursed of into lawes and stamp their authority and sanction upon it as men invested with judiciall authority from the magistrate just as I said of physitians who vote in Parliaments not as such but as judges of the land Against the ministers sitting and voting in Parliament it may be objected that thereby they would be kept off from the main care they are to attend which is over souls and from the preaching of the Gospell I answer 1. that their particular calling which is to be ministers of the Gospell ought not to keep them off from a moderate taking care and looking over things that are of lesse concernment as that of familie land estate suits in law much lesse to mind the generall good of the nation in which religion and peace are mainly concerned 2. There being two branches of the power of the magistrate one of legislation the other of jurisdiction this latter power is exercised by judges Mayors Sheriffs Sergeants and the like This power as men that have otherwise a constant profession which taketh them wholly up as physitians souldiers marineâ—s and the like cannot well manage so neither ministers of the Gospell but for the power of legislation the managing of which doth not take a man up so much there is no doubt but that as a physitian may take it upon him so also may a minister For the making of a law is like the making of a coach which being made in few dayes will be many years adriving by the coach-man before there be need of a new one so in a well-constituted state a good law which requireth but a little time to make it will continue many hundred years A minister may be well dispensed with for a little intermission of his ordinary calling to contribute his counsell to the making a law which may be of very good use a long time though there be no need he should busie himself further like a coach-driver to see by a power 〈◊〉 jurisdiction the law to take right course and be well obeyed I believe if in the first Parliament of Queen Elizabeth that drove away popery and settled the Protestant religion many of the godly ministers that suffered persecution in Queen Maries days had been sitting and voting in Parliament the then-reformation would have been much more compleat 3. Some ministers may be found whose parts lye lesse for preaching and more for government and who have wise politick heads why may not such be fit members in Parliament 4. As there is no reason to deprive a man of his right because he cannot alwayes attend to make use of it so must not a minister be devested of his right to sit in Parliament because it may be he cannot alwayes attend it A physitian would be loth because of his great practise to be made incapable to sit in Parliament so would a Divine however much taken up with the work of his ministery The premisses considered I conceive that the Rever Assembly doth part with its own right when they say in the last section of the third chapter that synods and councells are to conclude nothing but what is ecclesiasticall and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs unlesse by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary or by way of advice for satisfaction of consciences if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate By which as they seem to keep off magistrates and lay-men from sitting and voting in synods so they bar themselves from sitting and voting in Parliament But if such assemblies as were the great Sanedrim the synagogues of the Jewes the conventions that I have mentioned for 7. or 8. hundred years in Christian states the politick ecclesiasticall Senates among the Helvetians and that which was settled in the first reformation by the Prince Palatine of the Rhene if I say such assemblies in which there is a mixture of men and causes are lawfull as indeed it were very fit there should be no assemblies of publick concernment but of this nature why may not in these assemblies lay-men conclude in ecclesiasticall matters and ministers in civil If they may not or it must be with distinction and caution how shall the conscience of a man sitting in those assemblies if he be a lay-man be resolved when he may intermeddle while ecclesiasticall matters are debated and likewise if civil things be in agitation how far a minister sitting in the same company may interpose vote must when civil affairs are handled the ecclesiasticall persons first be required to vote or must they petition to have that liberty It may be they mean that when the assemblie is upon ecclesiasticall affairs that then the laity should likewise petition the clergy for a liberty of voting and intermeddling But suppose a member of this assembly be both a States-man and an elder of a church and therefore an ecclesiasticall man must he change his name and personage as the nature of the matter handled requireth professing not to interpose in such a businesse in the capacity of a church-officer but as a member of the Commonwealth And how shall the conscience of a man be resolved what is an ecclesiasticall affair what a civil that he may not doubt when he may vote and intermeddle when he must sit mute and silent or go out of the assembly For the casuists have not yet determined what is ecclesiasticall what civil for some of them make the discipline of the church of humane constitution and therefore to be ordered directed and commanded by the same power that giveth sanction to all humane lawes And if it be put to the question when how often in what place synods are to be convened what time they must sit what matter they must handle may not the lay-man then interpose as in a businesse of his classis may not also ecclesiasticall persons do the like Besides 100. constitutions may be found of such a mixt nature that it is not yet resolved what classis they pertain unto whether ecclesiasticall or civil such are the lawes about
clergy-man or not was decided capitall only excepted For matters of faith I confesse there be many Emperours sanctions forbidding secular courts to meddle with them but this doth not argue that the clergy had any power more then declarative not sancitive For 1. This very sanction that secular courts should not meddle with matters of faith was a law of the Emperour and the episcopall courts or synods could not challenge any power therein but by a commission from the Emperour 2. The Emperours did not conceive themselves obliged to receive lawes concerning faith from the Bishops or that coming from them they had a stamp of authority through all the Emperours dominions except they were approved of and ratified by them 3. The Emperours did not think themselves much obliged to receive lawes of doctrine and faith from the Bishops in regard that most of the lawes and constitutio is concerning the fundamentall points of faith were composed reduced and inserted into the Code without so much as taking counsell or advice of the Bishops though we never read that they ever complained thereof Only a late famous Lawyer and a Papist in his book de Iustinianei seculi moribus cap. 2. maketh a great complaint thereof which is a strong argument that the magistrate did not then acknowledge any ecclesiasticall power seated in the clergy 4. And the power that the Emperours challenged to belong solely to them to call synods to chuse members to review their acts to approve ratifie disannull or give them the vigour and strength of lawes obliging all churches and men to obedience either active or passive is an argument that what ever combined churches under the heathen Emperours did in calling of synods making lawes and decrees and requiring from all churches and church-members obedience to them the Emperours did not conceive otherwise of those acts of theirs but as of acts of magistracy taken up by consent for want of a Christian magistrate and which was to last no longer then till the time that God should send a Christian magistrate For had not these been the thoughts both of the Emperours and the Bishops at that time how came it that Constantine the Great the other Christian Emperours that came after him did not rather wish the Bishops clergy to call synods upon their own authority as they were wont to do and how came it that Oâ—ius Spiridion Paphnutius did not disswade Constantine from taking upon him to call synods telling him that it was more then did belong to him and speak in the language of Mr. Gillespie that ministers by virtue of their office are to call and assemble synods that it is altogether unreasonable that they should be abridged of what they had enjoyed for 300. years and now loose a main branch of their ecclesiasticall power that hitherto it was not so much as thought on that magistracy which is not a thing essentiall to the church should so far entrench upon the government of Christ wherewith the ministers are solely entrusted But these notions came not into the minds either of the Emperours or of Osius Eustatius Paphnutius and others nor of Hierom who questioned the validity of a synod that was not convocated by the Emperour These good men did not quarrell either at the convocation of synods or at the making or giving of lawes to churches by the sole authority of the Emperours 5. A further proof that neither the Emperours nor the Kings after the Roman Empire was broken in pieces conceived that Bishops and clergy-men had any judiciall power distinct from theirs is that for many 100. years in most parts of the Roman Empire as it then was Emperours and Kings kept state-assemblies where both clergy and laity sate and voted without any such distinction of power ecclesiasticall and civil I should here shew as I promised in the beginning of the chapter that the very heathens never knew any such distinction of power for although the law of nature and nations taught them that there must be a sacred function distinct from others yet they never knew nor understood that the jurisdiction of that function was distinct from that of the others for many thousand years neither the people of God nor the heathens knew any such distinction Aristotle in the third of his politicks ch 10. speaking of heroick Kings the Kings saith he were judges and moderators in all divine matters So was the Roman Senat both before and after it was governed by Emperours for it was wont to consecrate Emperours and the name of Pontifex Maximus of which they were so jealous was taken by the Emperours even till Gratians time In short they alwayes conceived that a common magistracy and soveraign power was made up of these two main ingredients viz. ceremonies about religion and humane lawes both put in trust with the soveraign magistrate One thing I cannot but observe that the very heathens by the light of nature have gone here beyond Mr. Gillespie For to confirm a common errour that the church jurisdiction is wholly independent from the magistrate and that the end of magistracy is only the protection of temporall life having nothing to do with promoting the eternall good of the soul to confirm I say this errour he teacheth us that magistracy is not subservient to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the Mediatour ex natura rei But this errour is refuted by the very heathen namely Aristotle in his 3. book of Politicks ch 16. where he saith that the scope of politicks is not simply to live but to live well I should ask Mr. Gillespie when a magistrate turneth from heathenism to Christianity whether his first duty is not to seek the Kingdom of Heaven both for himself and all that are under his charge There is also a notable passage of Pareus among his Miscellanea Catechetica artic 11. aphoris 18. where he lamenteth that heathens should surpasse Christians in this particular in attributing more to the magistrate for ordering matters of religion and that they in this point should be more orthodox these be his words Ac sane dolendum est rectius in hoc capite sensisse olim ethnicos qui unanimi consensu regi suo demandarunt curam religionâ—s cultus Deorum idque persuasi tam jure naturae quam gentium As pregnant a proof that the same persons amongst the heathens had the managing of religious as well as civil affairs is that of Cicero in his Oration pro domo sua ad Pontifices the words are these Praeclare à majoribus nostris constitutum est quod vos eosdem religionibus Deorum immortalium summae reipublicae praeesse voluerunt ut amplissimi clarissimi cives rempublicam bene gerendo religiosissimi religiones sapienter interpretando rempublicam conservarent It was excellently well ordained by our ancestours that the same persons should be put in care with matters of religion and the supreme government of state that so whilst the most
commandeth the gift the other charity and a disposition sutable to the giver The magistrate setteth a day of humiliation but the pastor commandeth the setting of the heart apart from the world All this serves to answer all the arguments of Mr. Gillespie drawn from one and twenty places of Scripture in the belief of his ecclesiasticall jurisdiction The place 1 Tim. 5. v. 19. against an elder c. he much urgeth but the following verse sheweth that in that context there is no mention of a church-judicatory where men are convented witnesses confronted and heard and a judiciall sentence pronounced It is the duty of pastors to reprove sin and sinners privately if the offence be private and publickly and in an open assembly if the sin be committed in the face of the church and to the scandall of all and yet S. Paul giveth a good caveat that the pastor of the church should not lightly ayme at and point at any man specially an elder and give credit to rumours but be throughly informed This rebuke is no excommunication nor a denouncing of church censure but of the judgements of God But were there any such thing in St. Pauls time as a church-judicatory judicious and learned Mr. Lightfoot will tell Mr. Gillespie that it were no inconveniency to say that even in St. Pauls time Christian churches being modelled after the platform of Jewish synagogues besides ministery in them had also magistracy and that it were neither improbable nor irrationall to interpret the place 1 Tim. 5. v. 17. according to that rule See him on the 5. of the 1. Cor. in his Harmony Which being granted the 19. verse will very well admit the same interpretation But let us take a generall view of all the 21. arguments of Mr. Gillespie If it be possible for any man to make something of nothing Mr. Gillespie hath that art for he thinks all is fish that comes to his net like the Papists who if they do but read of fire of a pot of a valley of a ditch it is enough for them there to find purgatory Thus Mr. Gillespie where he findeth the words reject rebuke beware take heed flee note put away withdraw weapon sword there he will be sure to have presbyteriall jurisdiction and power of excommunicating Who would think that Galat. 5. v. 12. I would they were even cut off which trouble you could serve his turn and yet he bestows three pages in striking excommunication out of this flint That noble passage 2 Cor. 10. 4 c. where the spirituall weapons are lively set out he understandeth of excommunication p. 292. and in verse 6. and having in readinesse to revenge all disobedience he findeth ecclesiasticall power and censure no lesse then that of excommunication But of all places I much wonder he can paraphrase 2 Cor. 2. 8. for ecclesiasticall power and excommunication I beseech you that you would confirm your love towards him that is as Mr. Gillespie expoundeth p. 290. I beseech you to shew your judiciall power in absolving the incestuous man from the sentence of excommunication Of the same weight is that proof of ecclesiasticall power and excommunication out of Revel 2. v. 14. and 20. where he saith the church of Pergamus is censured for not censuring that is for not excommunicating the woman Jezebel T is a wonder he doth not make the very censuring of the church of Pergamus to be excommunication Such proofs sometimes fall from the most eminent of them as when the Rever Assembly to prove a government of church-officers distinct from the civil magistrate alledgeth in the margin Esaias 9. v. 6 7. meerly because the word government is there mentioned for without that the place that speaketh of Gog and Magog had been as valid an argument for a church-government and for excommunication as that of Esaias where it is meerly intended to describe the Godhead of Christ the assumption of humane nature and 〈◊〉 gloriousnesse and strength of his spirituall and mysticall kingdom Yet trust I needs say thus much of the reverend Assembly that in grounding the government of church-officers upon that place of Esaias they have followed the sense of all their presbyterian brethren who making two powers of the keyes one of science of which Jesus Christ speaks Luc. 11. v. 52. and another of authority under which they comprehend the power of censuring excommunicating and making lawes authoritatively they have no other authority for it then this place of Esaias and another Apocaly p. 3. 7. where Christ is said to have the key of David with which as he openeth no man shutteth so he shutteth no man openeth which place in my opinion is no stronger a plea for an ecclesiasticall and externall government placed in the hands of church officers then the place of Esaias alledged by the Rever Assembly for this place as well as the other as Beza noteth upon Revel 3. 7. speaketh of the mysticall Kingdom of Christ that hath no end of which Luc. 1. v. 32. 33. but of this power in the hands of church-officers we are to speak in the ensuing chapter CHAPTER 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 IN the third place we are to take notice that the Rever Assembly doth not declare nor Mr. Gillespie what they mean by church-officers whether the dispencers of the word and Sacraments only or with them the lay-elders deacons for they invest them promiscuously with the power of the keyes of binding and loosing and of remitting and retaining sins against the opinion of Amyraldus Walaeus Apollonius and most of the presbyterians who attribute the power of the keyes only to ministers ordained as indeed it doth not belong to any others to preach and to administer the sacraments Therefore one would have expected the assembly should make some distinction both of officers and power It may be by the word respectively they meant that a part of the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing doth belong to lay-elders as far as concerneth governing and censuring but to the ministers belongeth not only the same portion of power common to lay-elders but over and above the power of preaching administring the sacraments voting in synods and determining authoritatively of controversies of faith But how can they make good by the Scripture that lay-elders are invested with the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing since this power was bequeathed only to Peter and with him to all the ministers of the Gospell as ambassadors from Christ to whom God hath committed the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. v. 19 20 Is there any mention in the Scripture of church-officers that have a power of the keyes and of binding and loosing and yet have not the word of reconciliation committed to them I cannot deny but that God sometimes maketh use of private men to bind and to loose