distinction of jurisdiction was not necessary because it was one people one nation and one temple whereto all the Iewes did gather together and therefore since they could conveniently be governed the unity of jurisdiction standing there ought not to have been a distinction yea it was very convenient that there should be an identity of jurisdiction that it might be believed that it was the same God to whom they all ministred There was the same reason for the temple for it was his will that there should be one place in which they should offer sacrifice unto him lest if that had been done in many places they might have thought there had been many gods Stapleton de Prin. doctrin 197. acknowledgeth the same indentity of jurisdiction among the Jewes I come to the second viz. to Mr. Gillespies concessions which are as large as I can wish that the church state were the same materially that the same man was both high Priest and chief judge of the nation that elders of synagogues did exercise coercive jurisdiction that the Jewish Senat after the thirtieth year of Christ was ecclesiasticall and yet was over all persons and causes except capitall and that there was not then any other senat extant but that before the thirtieth year the same senat having the judgement of capitall causes was civil All these being granted I see not what further can be required in the behalf of unity of jurisdiction since 1. the same men that were members of the ecclesiasticall senat were also members of the civil senat 2. that the synagogues were invested with magistracy since the elders had a coercive power so that in the very synagogues there is by his confession a coalition of powers and jurisd ctions 3. making but one senate both before and after the 30. year which judged of all causes and matters and over all persons the civil before the 30. of Christ judging of ecclesiasticall causes and the ecclesiasticall after the 30. judging of civil But I could never understand why he calls the senate after the 30. year of Christ meerly ecclesiasticall because it did not judge of capitall causes though it had cognizance and judgement of all other matters Can the judging or not judging of capitall and criminall causes alter the constitution and name of an assembly or court so as that when it judgeth of capitall causes it must be called civil otherwise it must be called ecclesiasticall Now because there is some obscurity in that concession of his that the church and state were the same materially we will hear what his countrey-men say to that in a late book printed anno 1657. called A true representation of the present divisions of the church of Scotland that we may the better weigh his recantation or rather modification when he saith that though they were the same materially yet they were distinct formally the words are pag. 18. The church of God being restrained to that one people of Israel their church and commonwealth were materially the same by divine constitution so that none could be members of the commonwealth but such as were also members of the church and so professours of the true religion as now under the Gospell it may be otherwise Now let us hear Mr. Gillespie pag. 6. They were formally distinct in respect of distinct lawes the ceremoniall was given to them in reference to their church state the judiciall was given to them in reference to their civil state But if they were distinct in regard of the judiciall and ceremoniall lawes why may they not be united in regard of the morall law For Mr. Gillespie passeth over the morall law and leaves it uncertain who is to be the keeper and guardian of it and whether it was given in reference to their church state or in reference to their civil state or whether a third power jurisdiction or state must not be constituted that is neither civil state nor church state to which the morall law hath reference for sure there was some union of jurisdictions in the protection and defence of the morall law which was as it were the bottom and the basis upon which the ceremoniall and judiciall were grounded and is of far more large extent then the ceremoniall and judiciall put together and from which in so many difficulties that are incident for the clearing of ceremoniall rites and judiciall sentences there must be continuall appeals to the keepers of the morall law which being at least equally in the custody of the magistrate and church-officers and both parties having a joint interest in the morall law as to see all men and businesses governed and squared thereby they also to that end must conjoin their power and jurisdiction For indeed the morall law is no more different from the politick then from the law given to families fathers masters husbands only the politick law is the practise of the morall or is the morall law applicable to cities families c. In like manner the ceremoniall law is but the morall law applyed in the practise of religious service for the morall law saith God only is to be worshipped the ceremoniall saith where how when by whom So that as all lawes are streams from the morall law so must all jurisdiction be from one fountain of magistracy It seems that Calvin had the same thought when in his harmony of the Pentateuch he reduceth all lawes under one classis But to examine a little nearer his distinction of materiall and formall I do not understand what he meaneth by formall in opposition to materiall for the jurisdictions that are one materially must be also one formally Let us suppose two coordinate supreme senates as Mr. Gillespie would have them among the Jewes one civil and another ecclesiasticall and that as he would have it the same men were members of one and the other I say if they do not differ materially neither do they differ formally so long as no law order or constitution civil or ecclesiasticall can have any force without the joint consent of both and except both senates put their seals of confirmation to what either of them hath decreed For example the appointing a day of publick humiliation by the ecclesiasticall senate must be also an act of the same men sitting in a civil senate who if they will have the injunction to stand must make orders subservient to it that there be no markets nor courts that day kept otherwise those that keep markets or courts upon such a day by vertue of former warrants from the civil senate will not know how far they are to obey the injunction of the ecclesiasticall senate without a dispensation from the civil senate This double jurisdiction is in effect but one for the same men appointing a day of humiliation in an ecclesiasticall senate to be kept forbid also in a civil senate all markets and courts to be kept and though one part of the injunction was made in one senate and the
Of the Right of CHURCHES And of The Magistrates power over them Wherein is further made out 1. The nullity and vanity of ecclesiasticall power of excommunicating deposing and making lawes independent from the power of Magistracy 2. The absurdity of the distinctions of power and lawes into ecclesiasticall and civil spirituall and temporall 3. That these distinctions have introduced the mystery of iniquity into the world and alwayes disunited the minds and affections of Christians and brethren 4. That those reformers who have stood for a jurisdiction distinct from that of the magistrate have unawares strenghthened the mystery of iniquity By LEWIS du MOULIN Professour of History in the Vniversity of Oxford Hieronym in cap. 9. Ierem. Nec Parentum nec Majorum error sequendus est sed authoritas Scripturarum Dei docentis Imperium LONDON Printed by R. D. and are to be sold by Sa Thomson at the white Horse in St. Paul's Church-yard 1658. To the high COURT Of the PARLIAMENT Of England Scotland and Ireland Right Honourable I Offer unto your Honours the first and greatest task though the meanest work that hath been yet undertaken which is to make the right and power of private Churches consistent and sociable with the Magistrates power over them so to sever by Divine right the sacred function of Ministery from that of Magistracy as to make both their jurisdictions but one and derive it from the soveraign power of the State and this from the Lord Iesus Christ who hath given unto the Magistrate soveraign power and authority for a soveraign end even to set up and promote the interest of his Kingdom It is one of the most dangerous heresies that ever the wicked one did sow among his tares that the Magistrate though Christian and godly doth not intend ex natura rei and in regard of his particular vocation the glory of Iesus Christ as Mediatour and King of his Church and that the end of Magistracy is not godliness and honesty but peace and quietnesse For these be the words of Mr. Gillespie in his Aarons Rod pag. 187. and 188. much like those pag. 253. where he saith that in a well-constituted Church the Magistrate ought not to receive complaints exhibited against a sentence of an Ecclesiasticall Court by the party censured which language I humbly conceive to be rank Popery for this heresy if I may call it so because it is the main engine to subvert the doctrine hath been and is still the greatest dividing principle that the world hath ever had it disunites mens minds and affections it divides most absurdly jurisdictions into spirituall temporall lawes into ecclesiasticall and civil it builds up a magistracy within the dominions of magistrates independent from them These erroneous tenets I maintain in this Book to have set up Popery and to be the grand mystery of iniquity and not their broaching of a hundred heresies which were but consequences and products of that great mystery and which are very compatible consistent with the main drift designe of that mystery even to set up a jurisdiction a government on earth distinct from that of the Magistrate whereas the reformation from Popery which England of all nations hath been most blessed with is altogether inconsistent with the retaining of that spring-head of the mystery of Iniquity by which powers jurisdictions are divided and you the Magistrates are removed and discharged from your principall duty of magistracy which is not so much to procure out ward temporall peace as eternal happiness to make Acts of Parliament Statutes Lawes Courts Armies Navies Taxes Excise Custome punishment of evil doers subservient to that end Which duty I humbly conceive to be so much the more incumbent on you by how much greater the power is that God hath put into your hands This being an undeniable truth that where God hath given more power authority and opportunity to do good there also he hath laid more obligation and duty For I dare confidently affirm that all the godly martyrs and ministers that ever were in England put together were they so many Bradfords Latimers Greenhams had not so much obligation laid upon them to promote the interest of Iesus Christ in setting up his ordinances as one single woman Queen Elizabeth had upon her So then right Honourable I have two main tasks upon my hands One to root out that dividing principle and remain of Popery amongst us and to prove that there is no other ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but that which the spirit of God in the word by the preaching of the Gospell hath over the consciences of men when it convinceth and perswadeth them and brings every thought affection captive unto the obedience of the crosse of Christ The other task is to make your power and duty of magistracy in matters of religion sociable with the right libertie yea independency of churches For the magistrates are to set up pure ordinances Ministery Schools of learning to call Synods and invite all men to join with them in promoting the interest of Iesus Christ but they are not to constrain any mans freedom liberty choice drawing him to Church perforce and urging him to embrace rather this Ordinance then that For as they cannot command grace so they cannot punish any man for want of grace or for an errour in judgement yet they may punish for an errour in practise if it be a breach of the law of the land they ought also to restrain men from spreading blasphemies and heresies laying that tye upon them which the Theodosian Code l. omnis de haeret imposeth ut sibi tantum nocitura sentiant aliis obfutura non pandant to keep those hurtfull tenets to themselves not to vent them abroad to the infecting of others All these notions positions I am confident I can make out so plain that they shall be obvious to any ordinary understanding straining neither Scripture nor reason nor casting the mist of grammaticall and scholasticall learning to keep men off from seeing their way discerning the truth nor loading the margent with quotations which draw the minde beside the context May it please you to pardon this bold address and uncouth dresse and language of a stranger and yet no longer a stranger being by your bounty naturalized and made an English-man who in affection and zeal to promote the religion peace and wealth of these three Nations under the protection of his Highnesse and to that end to bestow his labour studies yea his life will not shew himself inferiour to any Native I shall dye with much comfort if in my life-time I can see some fruit of my labours as I doubt not but I shall conjecturing it by the effects that my other labours in this kind have already wrought upon mens minds beyond seas possessed before with prejudices both against this subject and the godly party of this Nation If your Honours apprehend this to be a truth
naturall power right liberty and prudence in ordering all kinds of affairs societies and families are no otherwise distinct in kind or species then a yard that measured cloth differs from that which measured searge as a yard is alike appliable to silk and thred and the same hammer will knock in an iron naile and a wooden pin so the same power and prudence governeth the church and a colledge It is also observable that a man being at once a member of a family hall city Parliament church doth not act alwaies according to the quality of his relation function and place publick or private not acting as a physitian father or husband but as a judge and not as a church-member but as a free member of a society Thus a member of a colledge of physitians joyneth in consultation with his brethren in a case of physick as a physitian but in making lawes regulating the practise of physick and the apothecaries entrenching upon the physitians he doth not act as a physitian but as a judge and as a person invested with judiciall power from the state The same physitian in a Parliament upon the matter and question of physick and of physitians to be regulated may speak pertinently of his art as a physitian but doth not vote give his consent to the making of a law about physick as a physitian but as a judge of the land Likewise to be sure by what right pastors and people act in the church the acts and actions of a pastor or church-member are to be considered either as acts of pastors and of church-members or as they are acts of rulers and members of a society The act of a pastor as pastor is to discharge all ministeriall function commanded in the revealed word and not declared by any dictate of nature In those acts I see no right of jurisdiction but over the inward man when by the power of the word the sinner is brought to the obedience of the crosse of Christ The acts of church-members as such are either in relation to the pastor or of one member to another In relation to the pastor the acts are to submit to the minister ruling them and dispensing unto them the word They may have that liberty to try his doctrine and to do as they of Beroea who searched the Scriptures to know whether it was so as St. Paul preached unto them this is also an act of every faithfull member of the church not to assent to any doctrine because it hath been assented unto by the major part of suffrages but in things that concern order and discipline to yield to the constitutions agreed on by the major part of the assembly so that by them the bond of charity and the truth of the doctrine be not violated and perverted The acts of church-members relating one to another are to bear one anothers burthens to forgive and edifie one another to preferre another before himself The acts of pastors and church-members as they are endowed with a power common to all other societies are 1. to do all things orderly 2. to make a discipline sutable to time and place since there is not in the Scripture a positive precept concerning the same 3. to oblige every member to the lawes of the discipline voted by the major part of the members 4. to admit and expell the members which by the major part are thought fit so to be Many other acts are performed by the same members not as church-members as to appeal to a superiour tribunall as magistracy or synod in case of wrong sustained for they do not oppose a just defence to wrong by any other right then a member of any society should do Thus an assembly of Christians meeting in a church way being persecuted or assaulted in their temple by rude and wicked men doth not oppose a just defence by weapons or otherwise as church-members but as men invested with naturall power against an unjust violence In short ministers and people have many actâ—ngs within the sphear of Christian duties which are not proper to them as Christians and members of churches being like in that to a physitian who doth not build as a physitian or to a counsellor of State carrying a letter to a friend who acts then the part of a letter-bearer thus a father hath a power over his son by a naturall paternall right but he doth instruct him in a Gospell way by a paternall Christian right and duty grounded upon a positive precept of the Scripture thus Queen Mary of England established a religion by a naturall right power and duty annexed to all soveraignty to order sacred things with a soveraign authority but Queen Elizabeth did overthrow the false worship and did set up Protestant religion not only by the same right that Queen Mary had but also by a positive right as principall church-member as Ezechiah Iosiah c. appointed by God to be heads and nursing fathers and mothers of the churches The same things lawes and constitutions that are of divine right are also of humane right and likewise the things that are of humane right in a good sense may be said to be of divine right Things are said to be of divine or humane right either because the matter of right is concerning Gods worship or humane policie or because God or man is the author of them Thus the lawes of the Iewes regulating their Commonwealth are said both to be of divine and humane right divine because God is the authour of them humane because they order all affairs about mine and thine right and wrong and betwixt man and man Likewise many things have been instituted with great wisedome by magistrates and councils which may well be said to be both of divine and humane right Divine because they further the purity of worship and power of godlinesse humane because they were instituted by men and may suffer alteration and reformation So things that are every way of divine right both for the matter and institution as the eating of the passeover and the observation of the Sabbath may be said to be of humane right because commanded and enjoyned by humane authority The very calling of synods which they say is of divine institution both for their institution which is Apostolick and for the matter that is handled in them none but a papist did yet deny to be the Emperours and magistrates right Thus fasting prayer publick humiliation though duties to be performed by divine right and precept are also of humane right as commanded and ordered by the magistrate in a publick way Thus it was the good Kings of Iuda's right and none can blame them for it to command fasting and prayers Lastly things that are every way of humane right and made by man and have for their object the regulating of humane affairs as are the lawes concerning conduit-pipes buildings forests chases c. may conveniently be said to be of divine right because by divine right they
not trouble the reader with many quotations Yet to shew that this is no new doctrine I might produce some famous Romish authors who thought no lesse in the darkest times of ignorance for so Claude Fauchet hath left written a famous Historian and a Papist in his book of the liberties of the Gallicane church who out of Gregorie of Tours and the practise of his time proveth that the Kings of France were reputed heads of the church a title which many 100. years after was much found fault with in the Kings of England by the Romanists yea by some reformers He concludes his discourse thus which sheweth that the Bishops of that time did hold the King assisted by his counsell of State to be under God head on earth of the church in his Kingdom and not the Pope whom if they had looked on as the head they would have sent unto him the conclusion of the councill of Orleans and not to King Clovis So speaketh the author of the Review of the councill of Trent lib. 6. cap. 5. The ecclesiasticks in France do not hold their ecclesiastick jurisdiction from the Pope but from the King though the Iesuits teach otherwise CHAPTER VII The strength of Mr. Gillespies reasons to disprove that the magistrate is not chief governour of the church under Christ examined ALl that I have said doth sufficiently overthrow what Mr. Gillespie alledgeth for a double jurisdiction and against the magistrates being the chief governour of the church under Christ To make good that in a hundred places he doth much under value the magistrates power in sacred things namely p. 187. that the magistrate though Christian and godly doth not exnatura rei and in regard of his particular vocation intend the glory of Iesus Christ as mediator and King of the church In the next page The glory of Iesus Christ as mediatour and King of the church is not the end of magistracy And in the same page he saith that the end of magistracy is not godlinesse honesty but peace and quietnesse Pag. 235. he saith the magistrate is not to rule in the name of Christ Pag. 250. he saith the magistrate of England is not a member of the church as a magistrate but as a Christian In the 294. page the civil magistrate is Gods viceregent not Christs and ibid. If the magistrate be supreme head and governour of the church under Christ then the ministers of the church are the magistrates ministers as well as Christs and must act in the magistrates name and as subordinate to him and the magistrate shall be Christs minister and act in Christs name By all this he declareth his opinion more then he proveth it But to elude whatever strength this carries I further adde that God maketh use of two main instruments to promote and advance the Kingdom of Christ as mediatour 1. The first is the sacred function wholly set a part by God to preach the glad tidings of God reconciled to the world which function was first laid on Christ and then on the Apostles and the ministers of the Gospell who are embassadors and messengers of from Christ In this function there is no jurisdiction annexed but what the spirit in the word hath upon mens hearts for their conviction and conversion In the exercise of this function there is no law made by him that bears it but the law of the spirit no censure inflicted but on such as either willingly and not by constraint undergo it and chose whether they will or no or when it pleaseth God in judgement to afflict the despisers of Gods ministers ordinances This function I grant is not exercised in the magistrates name but Christs nor is it subordinate to him 2. The second thing servient if I may so speak and subservient to the promoting of the Kingdom of Christ is the magistrate and magistracy in as much as which I said before it cannot be that ministers and people assemble synods be called an outward government settled lawes published good men rewarded bad men punished heresies and hereticks rejected ministers maintained union preserved except ministers people synods be invested with a power of magistrate and magistracy These two as I suppose being undeniably true all Mr. Gillespies assertions above-mentioned will be found built upon the sand The magistrate having not the sacred function on him is no minister nor ambassadour of and from Christ neither doth the inward operative jurisdiction annexed to the sacred function arise from magistracy ex natura rei In that regard the minister preaching the Gospell and exercising his pastorall function is not the magistrates minister but Christs But as magistracy is the second necessary instrument which God employeth to promote the Kingdom of his Son in the world and for as much as it cannot be so much as imagined that magistracy is inherent in all pastors and assemblies of churches and synods no doubt but the ministers in that consideration may be called the magistrates ministers as both in the same respect are Christs ministers If Christs Kingdom cannot be nor ever was promoted without magistracy actually present and acting then the magistrate is a main minister of Christ in those acts Reverend and learned Mr. Lightfoot in his Harmony of the New Testament upon the 1 Cor. 5. clearly evinceth that church-officers cannot be so much as conceived to govern the churches without magistracy either assumed or delegated for having told us that every synagogue of the Jewes had magistracy within their own body judging betwixt party and party in matters of money Health damage yea inflicting corporall punishments he addeth all things well considered it may not be so monstrons as it seems to some to say it might very well be so in those times of Christian congregations for since as it might be shewed Christ and his Apostles in platforming the modell of Christian churches in those times did keep very close to the platform of synagogues and since the Romans in those times made no difference betwixt Iewes Iudaizing and Iewes that were turned Christians for as yet there was no persecution raised against Christianity why might not Christian congregations have and exercise their double function of ministry and magistracy in them as well as the Iewish synagogues and if that much controverted place 1 Tim. 5. 17. should be interpreted according to such a rule it were neither irrationall nor improbable Here by the way one may see that in synagogues there were severall functions but one Imperium and jurisdiction which was that of magistracy 2. that the churches of Christians were modelled according to Iewish synagogues 3. that every church had both ministery and magistracy By this likewise down goeth what he saith that the magistrate though Christian and godly doth not in regard of his particular vocation intend the glory of Jesus Christ as mediatour and King of the church The main end as well as duty of magistracy is the care of religion and so of
of the lawfulnesse of a call hath likewise power to make the call null and void in case it be not valid enough in his apprehension and judgement Good Lord what need is there to trouble the world with a distinct power from the magistrate which is thus evacuated and made void by another power CHAPTER IX The concessions of Mr. Gillespie which come to nothing by the multitudâ— of his evasions and distinctions The vanity and nullity of his and other mens divisions 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 THus we see that even Erastus could say no more then Mr. Gillespie and the confession of Scotland But Mr. Gillespie hath many evasions of modalities causalities and distinctions of power by which he seems sometimes to make large concessions to the magistrate but which when he pleaseth and it serves his turn he can elude and bring to nothing throwing in the eyes distinctions in great store to confound the judgement which is a strong argument of weaknesse unsoundnesse as of a house so of a cause when they need so many supporters whereas those that plead for the magistrates power in sacred things have need but of one only rule to state and define the whole controversy about the magistrates power and the measure of obedience which all Christian churches synods and presbyteries are to yield to them and that rule is that all men either single or convened and met in a society under whatever name or title do submit to and obey the magistrate in all things that are not against faith and good manners And these two things 1. the internall power in the ministery 2. and the externall power of the magistrate nakedly understood make short work and rid us of that army of causes kinds and distinctions of power and operations which M. Gillespie opposeth to a single combatant who notwithstanding is much stronger with his one only weapon then Mr. Gilâ—espie with his thousands as the fable saith of the cat whose one only caveat and shift to avoid 〈◊〉 by climbing up the first tree or house did more avail for her preservation then the whole bag-full of wiles and policies of the fox It were an endlesse labour to bring into a body all the divisions distinctions causalities modalities forms and objects of powers dispersed in Mr. Gillespies book Pag. 191. he maketh two objects about which ecclesiasticall power is conversant first the object of the magistrates care of religion and the object of the operation of that care Thus he and others make a power which he calls a care of the religion and another a care about religion As for the power itself considered generally they make it double ecclesiasticall and civil this is wholly the magistrates in the other the magistrate hath also a share for they say this ecciesiasticall power is exercised either in a politick way or in an ecclesiasticall way thus they make an ecclesiasticall civil power residing in the magistrate Next they divide ecclesiasticall power into intrinsecall and extrinsecall into direct and indirect the extrinsecall and indirect they yield to the magistrate thus you have again an ecclesiasticall power belonging to the magistrate Again they have an objective and formall ecclesiasticall power which needeth a further subdivision to be understood for they make an objective ecclesiasticall power conversant about persons and things and this they say belongeth only to the magistrate and a formall ecclesiasticall power in which the magistrate hath his share with the ministers so that of these two ecclesiasticall powers objective and formall it will prove that the magistrate hath 3. parts and the ministers but one for this ecclesiasticall formall power is again divided by them into a power exercised ratione objecti objective-way about things and persons which kind of power say they belongs to the sole magistrate and into a power exercised in an ecclesiasticall way which they say is the ministers portion Pag. 261. he hath an ecclesiasticall power which he divides into perfect and imperfect which he calls pro tanto of this stamp is this division of ecclesiasticall power into the power of every way and the power more suo which distinctions are so subtile that they are beyond Scotus apprehension He hath also a division of ecclesiasticall power into imperative and elicitive this is proper to ministers that to magistrates and then an ecclesiasticall power and jurisdiction properly so called and another improperly so called The jurisdiction improperly so called he and all his brethren ascribe to the ministers but the jurisdiction properly so called to the magistrate Which thing no way agreeth with the division of ecclesiasticall power into perfect and imperfect above-mentioned for whereas they make the perfect ecclesiasticall power to belong to the ministers and the imperfect to the magistrate here they make the ecclesiasticall power properly so called to pertain to the magistrate and the power improperly so called to the ministers so that if we believe them the power properly so called shall be the imperfect power as on the contrary the power improperly so called shall be the perfect power which is against any mans common sense and logick By the help of these distinctions the Popes and their advocates have defended the power of excommunicating and deposing Kings yea of disposing of their temporaâ—ties saying that the Pope hath not a direct power over them but an indirect but yet causing to be seized or seizing directly of their dominions as Julius the II. the Kingdom of Navarre per indirectam potestatem in casu necessitatis in ordine ad spiritualia potest summus pontifex manum imponere regnis imperiis cum plenissima potestate I have not done yet ranking in files the severall ecclesiasticall powers They further divide it into elicitive and coercive into primary and secondary power into the power managed directly and ex consequenti into a power of reforming abuses under the notion of formality of scandall and a power under the notion of formality of crime And to draw to an end of dividing they have more divisions of ecclesiasticall powers as into directive and coercive cumulative and privative auxiliary and destructive declarative and executive authoritative constitutive the auxiliary they derive from Charles the great capitulari Car. mag Volumus vos scire voluntatem nostram quod nos parati sumus vos adjuvare ubicunque necesse est ut ministerium vestrum adimplere valeatis we will have you to know that we are ready to help you in the ministerie Now of all these divisions of ecclesiasticall powers the magistrate hath alwayes one half the ministers sometimes none except they take for themselves the destructive and privative powers which indeed signify just nothing and are â—ntâ—arationis except also they content
but all sit and vote as men invested with power of legislation and at that time a physitian voteth not in the quality and capacity of a physitian no not when lawes are made for physitians and apothecaries although when they are in debate a physitian may discourse pertinently of physick as a physitian and skilfull in his art This is the very case of ministers of the Gospell who for that reason that men do not sit and vote in Parliament considered as men of such a calling or profession in the Commonwealth ought likewise to vote sit in Parliament for as the profession of physick or manufacture doth not devest a man from being a good and understanding Commonwealths-man so neither doth the pastorall calling 4. It seems to me very unreasonable yea unconscionable that any mans profession or habit how high or low soever should lay an incapacity upon the person of one though never so much capable and sufficient to contribute his wit and counsell towards the common-weal as if the magistrate would not take a loan of money of 100000 l. of one that had a long cloak but would be willing to take it of one that had a short cloak or a man in danger of drowning would not take his neighbour by the cloak or by his hair for fear of spoiling or disordering of them for thus do those which will not admit the advice of a minister in publick deliberations were he never so able to serve the Common-wealth by his wit wisedome and industrie and the need never so great meerly because of his habit and his profession of the ministery Which calling I am so far from thinking that it doth disinable him from sitting and voting in Parliament that not only it renders him the fitter but also that he is not thereby hindred from attempting any noble action which might turn to some great publick benefit A minister having the valour of Caesar ability to subdue Rome or a secret to burn all the ships of the King of Spain in his ports I conceive that his ministery ought not to keep him off from being employed to use all his industry to serve the Church of God or his countrey in such a way But why is not a physitian disinabled by his profession to sit in Parliament and a Divine is whenas there is a great deal more affinity betwixt the profession of a Divine and the debates in Parliament then betwixt them and the profession of physick 5. Although men do not usually fit and vote in Parliament by the right of the calling and profession they are of in the Commonwealth except they sit by their birth yet it were to be wisht that men that are generally more skilled in most professions and best able to judge what is right or wrong and are not ignorant of affairs of the world should be called such as I conceive are university-men and ministers of the Gospell 6. Since the greatest end of magistracy is to advance the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus and that for obtaining of that end it is needfull to make lawes and constitutions subservient to it why should ministers of all men be left out whose education and profession renders them more capable to advise for the obtaining of that great end 7. Since also there is such a complication betwixt the church state as they cannot so much as be imagined asunder and that most lawes and constitutions made by men are grounded upon and have some warrant from Divine writ and that those that appoint by law oaths to be taken should at least be well advised about the nature of the oath I do conceive that since all ranks are promiscuously called to advise about these of all men ministers best furnished and stored with knowledge and acquainted with the right and plea of conscience upon which equity right and law is grounded should not be forgot Why should not men who make it their whole employment to study the judgements of God be as fit judges in Parliaments and high courts of judicature as Physitians or merchants 8. There is the same reason for ministers to sit in Parliament as there was for priests and Levites to sit in synagogues and judiciall assemblies of the Jewes and in all consultations of state it being certain that the great Sanedrim was a mixture of Priests and Levites with the Princes and heads of the people 9. There is equall reason that if the supreme magistrate calls say-men to sit and vote in synods he should call the clergy to sit and vote in Parliament 10. There was no such thing so much as heard for many hundred years after the fourth age that ministers and Bishops should be thought incapable to sit and vote in the supreme courts of the nation I could prove it by the practise of Italy Germanie France Spain and England for above 7 or 8 hundred years even far within popery that though the Pope had much advanced the hatching of his two egges ecclesiasticall civil jurisdiction yet all state-assemblies were not distinguisht either from synods or from civil courts but promiscuously men of all ranks and professions Senators Bishops Lords Priests Gentlemen did sit and vote in one assembly and place about any matter whatsoever rite law discipline or ceremony Neither is it to be conceived that the causes debated in these assemblies were divided into two classes and that when ecclesiasticall matters were handled clergy-men did then vote and lay-men sate mute and when civil were in agitation then the clergy were silent and lay-men did only appear as judges which is indeed a pretty conceit but will not serve for a double jurisdiction He that will see that further proved at large needs but only read Blondellus de jure plebis c. and Mr. Prinne in his book of Truth triumphing over falshood A thing very considerable it is that during all these ages clergy-men because they were most skill'd in controversies of dâ—vinity exercised to speak in publick were also thought the fitter to judge right from wrong and to meddle with secular matters and therefore in courts of law or chancery clergy-men dispatched more businesses then the laity handled all cases except it may be criminall matters and wills not being permitted to be executors of Testaments otherwise they filled the courts so far that there were no knowing men yea none that could read or write but they hence to this day no court Justice of peace or lawyer but hath his clerk and they say still legit ut clericus he reads like a clerk This I find much urged by a famous lawyer a Romanist John du Tillet in his memoires who speaking of the encroachments of the Popes of Rome saith that they have alwayes endeavoured to sever what from the times of the Apostles was united and to make of one jurisdiction two which yet they could not so distinctly separate but that still to our dayes one may see it was not so in the beginning and
other part in the other senate which is very impertinent and a needlesse multiplication of businesses yet those two jurisdictions must at length be resolved into an integrall one as when Protectour Lords and Commons that make up one Parliament must unanimously agree that all the votes and orders shall end in the same law and act I confesse there can hardly be clashing of powers judgements votes betwixt these two supreme senates such as Mr. Gillespie supposeth so long as the same men are members of both senates but withall I should count it a needlesse and senselesse multiplication of senates and that in vain the same matter and cause were to be decided by two coordinate senates when as one senate would serve the turn for however at length the two senates as they meet in the same persons so must they in the same accord and agreement which is all one as if it were but one jurisdiction Again it is observable that diversity of things and persons to which lawes and constitutions have relation doth not constitute a diversity of power and jurisdiction specially when the same men are to make the same lawes and constitutions for as the same men making lawes about navigation and the militia cannot be said to act from two powers and jurisdictions they are invested with so neither if the same men do make lawes as for example about Gods worship and the militia Briefly I believe Sir Thomas More in all his Utopia cannot parallel such a piece of constitution of state made up of two jurisdictions both coordinate subordinate each to the other materially the same not formally where of the same men are members A happy state indeed in which there can be no clashing except the same man be opposite to himself or that the members of the ecclesiasticall senate forget to day what they decreed yesterday when they met in a civil senate But since these two senates are materially the same men what need we give them severall names and formes for some accidentall circumstances of time and place either because they do not sit in the same place or that they are upon severall businesses must the same members of Parliament sitting to day upon religion be called an ecclesiasticall senate acting by an ecclesiasticall power and to morrow sitting to order the militia of the state it may be in another place be called a civil or military senate acting by a civil or military power But most of those that are for ecclesiasticall presbyterian jurisdiction finding no probability in the opinion of Mr. Gillespie viz. that among the Jewes there was a jurisdiction in the hands of church-officers distinct from that of the magistrate go another way and admit willingly an identity of jurisdiction but withall say that from the coalition of jurisdictions amongst the Jewes it cannot be inferred that the same ought to be under the Gospell that that church in its pedagogy is no pattern to the church in its maturity thus speaketh Amyraldus in his book of the government of the church chap. 3. p. 91. Whoever commits these two powers into the hands of the same persons he not only brings back the church into its infancy as if it were still under the pedagogy of the law but also casts it into that confusion from which the condition of those times did deliver it A man upon better grounds may invert this paralogisme and make use of this reasoning of Amyraldus to prove the quite contrary to what he drives at and so imitate smiths who with the same tool pull out drive in a nayl for had the Jewes had a government of the church distinct from that of the Commonwealth I would thence inferre there is no further need among Christians of such a division but rather of a coalition of powers that the Jewes being rude and weak in knowledge under a burdensome administration loaden with ceremonies and legall rites where the sixth part of the people was either judge elder leader Priest Prophet Levite or officer in the Leviticall service had need to have many keepers guardians tutours many helps of government so the governours might be very well parted into ecclesiasticall and civil and so the whole government might be shared betwixt the two supreme powers the keepers of each having wherewithall to employ themselves but the Christian church being wholly freed from the burdensome administration of lawes and officers and having no platform of government neither hath it need of an ecclesiasticall jurisdiction when there is no ecclesiasticall law or constitution Thus were I of Mr. Gillespies opinion that among the Jewes the government of the church was distinct from that of the Commonwealth I would speak in the language and words of Amyraldus and infer that for the same reason that the Jewes had a double jurisdiction the Christians may be very well without it But the opinion of Amyraldus that there was no distinction of jurisdiction among the Jewes rendereth his inference for a double jurisdiction under the Gospell much more groundlesse weak and absurd for if under a burdensome administration when they had need of many pedagogues and schoolmasters yet they were governed without distinct government of church and state much lesse do the Christians need such a distinct government seeing they are freed from the necessity of having so many schoolmasters guides watch-men and masters to govern them and teach them so many rudiments and unriddle them all the ceremonies besides that sure God never gives distinct governours but also he giveth a distinct law and discipline to be a rule to govern by which yet God never did Though I am so far of the opinion of Amyraldus that the government of the church was not distinct from that of the state yet I am not of his mind in this to think that identity of government would bring a confusion in Christian states for I count that identity so needfull and necessary whether the state be never so much or never so little burdened by men lawes constitutions and businesses to dispatch that in a state loaden with lawes and businesses as the Commonwealth of the Jewes was two jurisdictions coordinate would have brought an horrible confusion and multiplication of suits and businesses and in a state lesse incumbered with lawes and businesses that double jurisdiction would still bring more work then need be if there was but one jurisdiction The argument of Mr. Gillespie to prove that there were two coordinate jurisdictions among the Jewes because of the wide division and distinction of offices amongst them neither the King being to take upon him the Priesthood nor the Priest the Kingdom as it makes nothing for him so doth it rather plead for an identity of jurisdiction under the new Testament for if when the functions were so distinct that the King could not offer incense and be Priest nor the Priest King yet there was no distinction of jurisdictions much lesse is that distinction needfull under the new
many constitutions about regulating the power of fathers masters and husbands and yet allowing them their authority at home are an argument that their fatherly power is consistent with their subordination to the magistrate 4. There be as I shewed above two kinds of acts to be performed in a church one as they are church-members the other as they are a society that for their government must assume some part of jurisdiction of the same nature with the magistrates power In the managing of the acts of the first kind there is no subordination of the church to the magistrate but only in the second for preaching hearing the word of God administring the sacraments walking holily submitting one to another are no acts of power subordinate to the magistrate and under that consideration I will grant the right of churches not to depend on the magistrate but as these acts in a church-way cannot be exercised without a power of magistracy assumed in this regard a church may be said to be subordinate to the fountain of magistracy For it is with these two kinds of acts in subordination to God and the magistrate as with the body and the soul For none doubts but the faculty and gifts of reasoning apprehending truth loving God and our neighbour believing in Christ are no acts subordinate to the power of the magistrate but as reasoning faith love must be supposed resident in the body of man and that the man in doing acts subordinate to the magistrates power as going ordering commanding and obeying doth carry along his reason faith and love in like manner as it is not possible to consider a man performing the acts of reason faith and love and not being the while subordinate to the power of the magistrate so a church even performing those acts of church-members as such in as much as the second kind of acts that are subordinate to the magistrate must be joyned with the first cannot be considered without it be subordinate to the magistrate 5. If the power of churches were not subordinate to the magistrate many inconveniences would follow 1. That some churches gathered by the magistrate and his acts of appointing time place and stipends should not be subordinate to him 2. Or if he should gather none and besides appoint no publick worship to take place in all parts of his dominions but leave that wholly to the will of those that congregate of their own accord this I say would in a very short time breed irreligion or heathenisme in most places and most tanks of men for then it must be conceived that not one of 20. would congregate of themselves that the 19. parts not being called upon nor any way invited by publick ordinances set up in all places of mens abode atheisme or neglect of all religion would soon ensue in most parts And a persecuting magistrate as in the primitive church were ten times rather to be wished then one carelesse and neglecting to set up ordinances for by one of these two wayes either by persecution or by countenancing and commanding the worship of God the magistrate causeth religion to flourish by doing neither one nor the other he takes the way to abolish it as Julian the apostate was about to do if God had not the sooner cut him off 6. But suppose it be granted on all sides that the magistrate is bound to do what King Edward did or Queen Elizabeth to banish popery to set up protestantisme and an orthodox ministery in all parishes throughout England which acts cannot be performed by a few particular churches with all their church power sure it must be also granted that all those acts of a magistrate in ordering affairs of religion are in his disposall and depending on him 7. Since then the magistrate must have the ordering of those affairs of religion which he himself hath constituted if he should not likewise be the supreme governour of those churches which he hath not erected but were gathered by the members of churches of their own accord there could not but a great confusion arise in mens minds as well as in the state it being no small businesse to distinguish the power of the churches that are subordinate to the magistrate and the power of those churches that are not From reason I descend to the authority of the rever brethren both in old and new England dissenting from the presbyterians In old England the reverend pious Jeremie Burroughs will be in stead of all the rest of his brethren for in the eleventh chapter of his Irenicum he professeth to deliver not only his own judgement but also that of his brethren with whom he had occasion to converse Whoever shall peruse his book throughout specially the fifth chapter will find that he attributeth as much power to the magistrate over churches as any of the opposites to the presbyterian brethren Which power of the magistrate while he asserteth he never conceives it should overthrow his other positions namely in the seventh chapter concerning the right and power of churches or that his stating the right liberty and power of churches could not consist with the power of the magistrate over them Now he is very expresse in the said chapter for the power of the magistrate in sacred things Pag. 21. he saith that magistrates in their magistracy are specially to ayme at the promoting of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the mediatour and there and throughout that long chapter you have these conclusions 1. That the church and Commonwealth of Israel were mixed in one that there is no reason it should be now otherwise 2. That the power of the magistrate is alike in the times of the old and new Testament and were it so that nothing were set down of it in the new Testament that it is enough it is a law not only granted to the Israelites but also of the light given to the very heathens whose power of magistracy was to govern religion as well as other things 3. That it is most unreasonable that a magistrate turning either from the heathenish or Jewish religion should enjoy lesse power in matters of religion then he had when he was a Jew or heathen An infidel magistrate saith he converted to Christian religion is thereby better inabled to perform the duty of his place then before but he had the same authority before 4. He holds that the magistrate hath a soveraign judgement of his commands though unskilfull in the things commanded A magistrate that is not skilfull in physick or in navigation yet he may judge physitians and mariners if they wrong others in their way 5. He asserts largely the power of the magistrate in matters of religion by the example of the Kings of Judah and Israel yea of the Kings of Niniveh and of Artaxerxes interposing his power in matters of religion for which Ezra blesseth God whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the King let judgement be executed upon
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.
that there was no true proper church but a particular church that therefore a presbyterian nationall church made up of many particular churches under one presbytery is not properly said to be a church I am of opinion that the Roman church upon that account is very improperly called a church but most improperly a tâ—ue church for if it hardly deserveth the name of a church how can it be called a true one at least morally though it may be metaphysically it being a consociation of erroneous and hereticall churches for if every privaâ—e church within the Roman communion is so disfigured that I do not think it deserveth the name of a church how improperly then is a systern made up of those particular churches stiled a church And so I conceive that the question about the truenesse of the Romish church which hath so puzzled men may be easily resolved I have but one passage more of Amyraldus to alledge which a man could hardly believe to be the language of a professed enemy to the cause of the brethren For if they should state their own opinion of the power and independency of churches they cannot use more significant words then those of Amyraldus who in his disputation de concil author thes 28. saith that private churches ought to retain their full right liâ—erty and power untoucht specially in matters of great concernment as points of faith not submitting slavishly their own judgements to synods but expecting that synods should define and decree nothing till they have had the advice and approbation of particular churches This is the passage in Latin Alibi diximus pulcherrimum saluberrimum esse earum ecclesiarum institutum quae concillorum decreta ad res magni momentâ— qualia sunt dogmata fidet pertinentia rata esse noluerint nisi prius consultis synodis ecclesiis particularâ—bus quarum quaeque symbolam suam ad veritatis cluc'dationem conferat Salmasius followeth the steps of Amyraldus or rather Amyraldus of him for Amyraldus wrote last He is very large in his apparatus ad libros de primatu and I should be tedious to the reader to set down here all that he hath handsomely stated about the nature of a church I will only quote two pages which are 265. and 266. The substance of his discourse is comprehended under these 4 or 5 heads 1. That all churches by right are equall in power and dignity and are independent 2. That the consociation under the heathen Emperours was voluntary and by consent 3. That under Christian Emperours a consociation was introduced by humane right so that what was at first by free and mutuall consent came afterwards under the Christian Emperours to be of humane institution and constitution 4. That the unity of churches consisted not in an united collection of private churches but in an agreement in faith and doctrine for such an union there is betwixt the Helvetian Belgick and French churches who agreeing in the same faith and doctrine do notwithstanding differ in discipline so that these churches may be called independent each on the other yet they keep an union and communion among themselves No other communion and independency do the reverend dissenting brethren admit and practise either among themselves or with the presbyterian churches both at home and abroad 5. The fifth head is that a consociation of many particular churches joyned with the same band of discipline and under the direction counsell advice not the command or judiciall power of any synod or presbytery doth much conduce to the keeping the unity of faith the band of charity and the communion of saints In the same place and many others throughout his apparatus he saith that the communication betwixt particular churches was voluntary and by way of counsell every church reserving to themselves full right and power as to those acts of their discipline and the acts of binding and loosing so that every church had power to take cognizance of any fact and crime committed in their body to censure and excommunicate them or reconcile them again without any appeal to other churches or synods except it were to beg their friendly intercession for so they were wont to consult and entreat Bishops and namely him of Rome to review the sentence repairing to him as to an umpire not a judge to disannull or evacuate the judgement which makes the Romanists take those applications to the Bishop of ROme as an acknowledgement of supremacy over all the churches To these authorities Iwill adde that of learned and moderate Spanhemius who did not use invectives as others but arguments and reasons as good as he could yet in my opinion the good man mistaketh much in his Epistle to David Buchanan not so much through ignorance of the right as of the fact yet in the 55. page he hath these words which are much to the advantage of the brethren A particular church hath no power at all over another but they are all collateral and of equall right and authority Let us now hear other advocates of the brethren before the word independency came to be given to Protestants in the world The first is learned Amesius in his first book of the marrow of Divinity chapt â—0 where after he hath in the 17 18 19 20. and 26 sections spoken of the parity and equality of particular churches in right and power in the 27. section he tells us what consociation of particular churches may be admitted these be his words Particular churches may yea ought to have a mutuall confederation and consociation amongst them in classes and synods that by a common consent they may be helpfull one to another with as much commodity as may be chiefly in things of greater concernment but this combination doth not constitute a new frame of church neither ought it in any sort to take away that liberty and power which Christ hath left to his churches since this form is only usefull by way of direction John Mestrezat a very learned orthodox Divine lately deceased minister of Paris goeth upon the same grounds with Amesius in his book of the church written in French and his testimony is most considerable because being a French-man he could not know or foresee as Amesius perchance might any such plea in England about right or power of churches aggregated It would be too long here to set down his own words at large For those that understand French they may see specially the 1 chap. of the 3. book where he saith that all power to do any church acts is placed in the particular church that all church-priviledges and promises were made and granted unto and in consideration of a particular church assembled in one place As for aggregation and consociation of churches he holds it not to be grounded upon any pattern or command from Scripture or even from a judiciall power given by Christ to classes synods presbyteries over particular churches but meerly assumed prudentially for mutuall preservation
publick judgement he had been a publican and a heathen not only to the offended party but to all others But Jesus Christ seemeth to a private offence and a private way of proceeding to give a private counsell how the party wronged ought to behave himself to wards the offender Learned Mr. Lightfoot thinketh that in all the context there is nothing intended either of Jewish or Christian excommunication that there was no judiciall sentence pronounced nor constraint put upon the offending party but only shame and that not publick but only within the walls of the synagogue or of the school As if a man would not provide for his family after a first and second admonition he was put to shame in the synagogue by these or like words Such a one is cruell and will not nourish his children 2. This makes way to know both what power that church in the Text had and what is meant by it Calvin upon the place hath some remarkable concessions much to our purpose 1. That Jesus Christ alluded to the custom of the Jewes and had respect to the form of discipline among them 2. That the power of excommunication belonged to the elders of the people who represented the church Which concessions are convincing arguments to prove 1. that Iesus Christ by the word Church did not mean an assembly of men whose power was distinct from that of the magistrate since no such thing as was called Church Kahal Gnedah in the old Testament was ever taken for an assembly of churchmen invested with jurisdiction and distinct from those of the Commonwealth 2. Since the elders of the Iewes were no more elders of the church then of the Commonwealth and that they had the sole power of excommunicating it followeth that the act of excommunicating was not more an act of church then of state and therefore if Christ speaking of the Christian excommunication alluded and had a regard to the custome of the Iewes that likewise their excommunication must be like that of the Iewes and be as well an act of magistracy as an act of the church Which is confirmed by what he faith upon the 18. verse speaking of the government of the church where he makes two kinds of elders in the Christian church answerable to two kinds of elders in the Iewish church Now as these were not invested with a power called ecclesiasticall distinct from the civil so may we conclude of the elders in the Christian church These be his words Legitimam Ecclesiae gubernationem presbyteris injunctam fulsse non tantum verbi ministris sed qui ex plebe morum censores illis adjunctierant But above all he is expresse upon the 17. verse where he saith that the Lord Iesus Christ in modelling the churches discipline sendeth them to the institution under the law admonuit in ecclesia sua tenendum esse ordinem qui pridem sub lege sancta institutus fuerat If we all stand to Calvin the quarrell is ended and the church Matth. 18. will prove such a church as was in Moses Ioshua and Davids time by which is never meant a congregation of Priests or church-elders distinct from the commonwealths elders So then we see even according to Calvin if Iesus Christ spoke in the context of a church Christian as I do not believe he did it must be a church of the same nature with the Iewish in which excommunication being an act of magistracy so must it also be in the Christian church But I do not believe that in this whole context there is any thing meant either of the Iewes or Christians excommunication or of such a church as our opposites would have to be understood by the word church viz. an ecclesiasticall senat or presbytery being certain that neither in the old nor in the new Testament the word church in Greek or Hebrew is taken in that sense Is it likely that Iesus Christ would mention a church that was never recorded in all the old Testament and whereof neither the Evangelists nor the Apostles speak Doubtlesse Christ speaketh here of such a church or assembly of men who were as Calvin saith Morum Censores censors of manners much used among the Iewes and Romans not invested with any judiciall power but yet of such authority and gravity that whoever did reject their wholesome advice and counsell was as much discredited as if he had suffered corporall punishment It may be those censors of manners were rectors and teachers of schools men who for their gravity and learning were highly esteemed among the people and such a school some say Christ and his Apostles made up much like those schools of the Prophets in use in Samuels time in which the scholars or young Prophets did sit at the feet of the Rabbies as Mary at the feet of Iesus who for that was called Rabbi-However those words if he neglect to hear the church do argue that the church spoken of in this context was not invested with a power of censuring the offender as Bilson and Sutliffe do judiciously conclude from the words For thus speaketh Dr. Sutliffe in his 9. chapter de presbyterio Christ speaketh of a church that had no power to constrain and which one might despise without insurring punishment for if it had had power to constrain in vain had he added if he will not hear the church for the church would have constrained him In short these words tell it unto the church are made like regula Lesbia a nose of wax by Papists Episcopall men and presbyterians it is to them a wood which if a thousand men go into none will fail to shape himself a stick a mallet or a hammer Bellarmin will tell us that tell it unto the church signifieth tell it unto the Romish church or tell it the Pope Mr. Gillespie will expound it tell it unto the presbytery Dr. Hammond tell it to the Bishops called by Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not urge much the words let him be to thee an heat hen or a publican which if they do not make void excommunication I am sure they do not help it much seeing that neither a publican nor a heathen were the object or subject of excommunication I conceive that the true pataphrase of these words may be this and that this was the meaning of the Lord Jesus If the offender refusech all honest wayes to right thee then prosecute him in the court of the magistrate where heathens and publicans have their own judges deal with thy brother as if he were and as thou wouldst do with an heathen or a publican for since thou must now repute thy brother as to thee as an heathen or a publican and since thou wouldst not scruple to implead an heathen or a publican so neither must thou scruple to sue thy brother For sure neither Jesus Christ in this place nor St. Paul in the 1 Cor. ch 6. forbiddeth Saints to go to law against an heathen before an heathen
Cantons for being to live under a cross magistrate they could not exercise their discipline as a law commanded by the magistrate nor execute their censures of excommunication as acts of the magistrate and therefore the reformed churches of France have upon much better grounds retained excommunication then the churches of Geneva who living under a magistrate that was himself part of the church were not necessitated to divide jurisdictions since the same men who were members of churches were also members of the city and magistracy and since the discipline yea excommunication was a law of the magistrate there was little need to divide powers and jurisdictions which when they should have done all they could must needs stream from the same spring-head But in France they could not be so happy and therefore since they could not have a jurisdiction immediatly derived from their â—agistrate it was requisite they should take up one â—y muâ—uall consent and by a confederate discipline For when the magistrate as it was among the Jewes in their captivity is no countenancer of the true religion nor a keeper of the two tables nor a nursing father of the churches that live under him they musâ— if they can obtain his leave be a magistrate and a law unto themselves and set up a kind of magistracy by mutuall consent not only in their private churches but also in their consistories and synods by which religion and piety may be asserted and errours in lise and doctrine be restrained So that when a private church excludeth a man either out of its communion or assembly this it doth by no other power then a magistrate a town a coâ—poration or a hall should act by in banishing or expelling a member of their own body I confesse few of the ministers in France will acknowledge that their discipline is taken up upon such grounds but rather that it is according to the pattern in the mount and the discipline of Christ as if it were a spirituall censure and a sword committed only to the ministers by a Scripture warrant and from the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing But I much wonder that wise men having a good foundation upon which they may firmly ground their discipline should rather chuse to build it upon the sand and upon the sea shore where it may be soon washt away What man possessing an inheritance by a good title would renounce that and rather feign a false will and testament and upon that ground his title which proving invalid will put him by the inheritance he had a good title to Yet this they do who will acknowledge no discipline but from Christ and will not put a man out of their assemblies but by a power derived to them from Christ But it being proved to their faces 1. that Jesus Christ never chalked out any form of discipline but left it to the prudence and discretion of Christian magistrates pastors and people who in generall are commanded to see that all things be done orderly 2. that excommunication is no otherwise a law of Christ then is the act of putting away a hurtfull member from any society these two things I say being made out to them to be Scriptu e reason and common sense and yet they persâ—sting to have no other grounds for their discipline then those feigned ones who seeth not that their discipline must be groundlesse since they cast away that which might strongly support it Thus they are like a man that cuts off his good leggs and buyes himself wooden crutches to walk upon This is that doctrine that my Paraenesis was so much blamed for by my countrey-men yea nearest kindred as if I went about to take away all discipline and to bring in stead of it disorder and confusion yea further to lay the reformed churches open to the persecution of their adversaries But my conscience tells me I never had any such designe and my reason prompts me that no such thing can be concluded from what I have written of that subject For it is with the discipline of the reformed churches in France under their magistrate as it was with that of the Jewes under the Babylonians Persians and Romans for whereas before their captivity they had no distinction betwixt church and state no other discipline then the law of the land no jurisdiction distinct from that of their magistrate afterwards when they lived under magistrates who were no friends to their lawes and religion they were fain as far as they were permitted to set up a discipline by consent which was in lieu of the magistrate whereof one law was to be casting out of the synagogue which we may call excommunication So that their jurisdiction was no otherwise distinct from that of the magistrate then as the power of a son in ordering his own affairs and religion contrary to the unjust commands of his father is distinct from the paternall power When a man cannot go to the charge of lead he must thatch his house with straw if he wants means to keep a servant he must serve himself and if he wants one to govern him he must be his own governour and yet that power whereby he governeth himself and is master of his own actions is not distinct from that which a governour was to have over him The very same thing the reformed churches in France may say who make use of what magistracy they can contrive and set up among themselves in lieu of their own magistrate who cares not for their religion If they be persecuted while they hold that their discipline is taken up by consent as the Jewes was under strange magistrates I do not see how they will be lesse exposed to persecution when ever they hold that their discipline is not of mans devising but of Christs own appointment For the magistrate doth not give them the liberty 〈◊〉 their discipline under any such notion either as it is confederate and arbitrary or punctually set down in Scripture for either way he counteth their discipline to be but a departing from the true church and their reformation to be a meer deformation So that it matters not much as to their safety what foundation they make their discipline to stand upon Sure it is not like that those that were the authors of the discipline of the reformed churches in France did look upon it as a modell left by Christ to his churches but rather as a collection of rules well digested by humane wisedome and prudence alterable according to time and place For so much saith the last article of their discipline These articles contained in this book concerning discipline are not so determined and ratified amongst us but that they may be altered as the emolument and benefit of the church shall require I hope when all prejudice shall be laid asides no rationall man will deny my principles I have alledged John Mestrezat a very learned man late minister at Paris both in my