as Saylors subjects these reduplications be consening and deceiving notions painters as painters are regulated by Art subject to be judged by painters but as men they are subjects so are Ministers as men subject to Cesar as Ministers they are the servants of Christ not subjects Ob. As Ministers they are either Magistrates or subjects but Ministers as Ministers are not Magistrates He that is not with Christ is against him M. Coleman in his Brotherly examination p. 21. saith He that doth not manage his office under Christ and for Christ must manage it under the Devil and for the Devil if therefore the Christian Magistrate do not manage his office under and for Christ he must manage it under or for the Devil which were blasphemous Ans I deny the Major proposition Ministers as Ministers are neither Magistrates nor subjects but formally the separated servants of Christ set a part for the work of gathering the Saints Now to be subjects is to be judged by the Magistrate in those things in which they are subjects that is in all Civill businesse they are and false teaching discerned by the Church to be false teaching or in case the Church corrupt themselves then are Ministers obnoxions to bodily punishment to be inflicted by the Magistrate But this is properly to be a subject of the Magistrate to be lyable to the civill cognizance trying and bodily punishment inflicted by the Magistrate and to be a subject and a member of the other Kingdome is to be subject to the Ecclesiasticall cognizance tryall and censure of the Church as a matter that concerneth the soul hence the former concerneth the body and outward man the latter the inner man and the soul 2. The former concerneth peace with men and edification to be procured by a mean extrinsecall to edification to wit by the sword the latter concerneth peace with God by a spirituall sword the Word of God 3. The former is carnall and of the Kingdome of this world the latter spirituall and of Christs other Kingdome that is not of this world Ioh. 18. 36. 4. The former worketh by coaction and bodily violence the latter by removing unwillingnesse and making a rebellious soul obedient 5. The former is an act of justice not terminated on repentance or the mans turning to God as an end for whether this end be obtained or no the Magistrate is to use the sword the other is terminated on repentance as its end He that is not with Christ is against Christ and with the Devil It s true in all professors of the Gospel as professors no man but he must be either on the one side or on the other either for or with Christ or against him But it is not true with every reduplication thus Ministers as Ministers are subjects of or to the King and to obey him in the Lord and so with Christ hath this sense Ministers essentially and formally are subjects of or to the King to obey him in the Lord so as Ministers do lose the essence and formality of the office of the Ministery if they be not the Kings subjects and with Christ this is most false for Iudas should not be a Minister of Christ then in that he was not subject to the Law of Cesar that is that the servant and disciple should be for and under his master and Lord it only followeth Ergo Iudas was not a godly Minister but under the Devil not under Christ Magistrates do neither essentially as Magistrates cleave to Christ nor â—ight against Christ but as holy men they cleave to Christ as sinfull men they fight against Christ 2. Master Coleman knoweth that we speak of the office of a Magistrate as a Magistrate not under the accidents of Christian or heathenish there was no reason he should apply his Argument to the Parliament except to make us odious as if we did not as much honour or pray for the Parliament and King as himselfe But it concludeth equally against all Magistrates and let him see it in a heathen Magistrate as a Magistrate for a heathen Magistrate as a Magistrate doth either manage his office under Christ and for Christ or under the Devil and for the Devil This I and Master Coleman also shall deny for a heathen Magistrate as a Magistrate doth not manage his office under or for Christ as mediator because he is utterly ignorant of Christ for he hath no more but what God as creator and nature gave him saith Master Coleman pag. 20. and the other horne of the Argument is as weak for this The heathen Magistrate as such manageth his office under or for the Devil is blasphemous for so Magistracy and the office should be intrinsecally unlawfull and for the Devil But it is intrinsecally the Ordinance of God Rom. 13. and apply this to God as creator it shall appear of force The Magistrate as the Magistrate doth either manage his office under and for God creator or under and for the Devil The former part is true because God creator and nature made the office of Magistracy apply it to a heathenish husband Father Master Musitian Painter under these reduplications and it shall make the relation of Husband Devilish or this proposition a Husband a Father as a Father and a Husband manage their office under and for Christ the mediator or under or for the Devil is most false and blasphemous the former part is false for there should have been and was Father and Husband which did manage the duties of these relations for God creator not for Christ mediator though Christ had never taken on our nature never been mediator never been King and Priest of his redeemed Church The latter part is blasphemous for then Adam had managed the part of Husband and Father under the Devil and for the Devil even before he fell in sinne and in the state of Innocency 3. Mr. Colemans meaning is that the Magistrate as the Magistrate and by office is under Christ mediator as his supream and immediate vicegerent as mediator now in this sense Christs saying he that is not against us is with us shall not prove the truth of the proposition which must be this and is most false to wit that The Magistrate as the Magistrate by office is either under Christ mediator as the supream and immediate vicegerent of him as mediator or he is by office under the Devil This we deny for one might argue thus of the Apostle Paul who was either as an Apostle for Christ or against Christ Paul as an Apostle is either under Christ the mediator and his supream and immediate vicegerent having power of both Swords or he is under the Devil The proposition is most false for Paul is neither of them so say we here the Magistrate doth neither manage his office as a Magistrate under Christ mediator as his Vicar and a little head of the Church nor yet doth the Magistrate manage his office under or for the
glory on every Assembly on Mount Zion for we are witnesses of Your Honours Travels for both that glory may dwell in our Land Your Honours at all respective observance in the Lord S. R. To the Ingenuous and Equitable Reader IT lieth obvious to any ordinary underderstanding worthy Reader that as alwayes we see a little portion of God so now the Lord our God in his acting on Kingdoms and Churches maketh Darknesse his Pavilion to finde out the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Demonstrative Causes and true Principles of such bloody conclusions and horrible vastations as the Soveraign Majesty of Heaven and Earth hath made in Germany Bohemiah and the Palatinate as if they were greater sinners then we are and why the windows of Divine Justice have been opened to send down such a deluge of blood on Ireland and why in Scotland the Pestilence hath destroyed in the City and the Sword of the Lord not a few in the fields their Lovers and Friends standing aloof from their calamities is from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel but to finde reasons to quiet the understanding is not an easie scrutiny matters are rolled on invisible wheels It is enough to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Men no Angels can hunt out the tracings of Divine Providence Nor can we set a day of Law nor erect a Court to implead this Lord who is not holden in Law to answer for any of his matters It were our wisdom to acknowledge that the actions of our Lord ad extrà are so twisted and interwoven thred over thred that we can see but little of the walls and out-works of his unsearchable counsels sure Divine Providence hath now many irons in one fire and with one touch of his finger he stirtâ—â—h all the wheels in Heaven and Earth I speak this if happily this little piece may cast it self in the eye of the Noble and Celebrious Judges and Senators who now sit at the â—eâ—m for I hope they consider it is but a short and sorry Line or rather a poor Circle Job 1. 21. Gen. 3. 19. between the Womb and the Grave between Dust and Dust and that they then act most like themselves Psal 82. 6. I have said ye are Gods when they remember they are sinful men and when they reckon it for gain that the King of Ages gives them a Diurnal of 24 hours to build the House of the Lord to cause the heart of a Widow Church though her Husband live for evermore to sing for joy and are eyes to the blinde and legs to the lame and withall do minde that when the Spirit is within half a Cubit or the sixth part of a Span to Eternity and Death cannot adjouâ—n for six hours to repent or do any more service to Christ in the body the welcom and testimony of God shall be incomparably above the Hosanna's of men Undeniable it is that we destroy again what we have builded if we behead the Pope and divest him of his Vicarious Supremacy and soader the Man of Sins head in the Ecclesiastical Government to the shoulders of any Man or Society of men on Earth It is not an enriching spoyl to pluck a Rose or Flower from the Crown of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Diamonds and Rubiâ—s picked out of the Royal Diadem of Jesus Christ addeth but a poor and sorry Lustre to Earthly Supremacy it is Baldnesse in steaâ— of Beauty An Arbitrary power in any whether in Prince or â— relats is intolerable Now to cast ouâ— Domination in one and to take it in in another is not to put away the Evil of our doings but to Barter and Exchange one sin with another and mockingly to expiate the Obligation of one Arrear to God by contracting new Debt Again how glorious is it that Shields of the Earth lay all their Royalty and Power level with the dust before him that sitteth on the Throne and to make their Highnesse but a Scaffold to heighten the Throne of the Son of God Yea if Domination by the Sword be the Magistrates Birth-right as the Word of Truth teacheth us Luke 22. 25 26. Psal 82. 1 6. Rom. 13. 4. and the Sword can never draw blood of the Conscience It is evident that the Lord Jesus alloweth not Carnal weapons to be used within the walls of his Spiritual Kingdom and if Power be an enchanting Witch and like strong Drink which is dolosus luctator a cosening Wrestler we are to be the more cautelous and circumspect that it incroach not upon Jesus Christ for fear that we provoke the eyes of his glory and cause Jerusalem to be plowed and Zion become heaps and many houses great and fair desolate Let the Appeal be to the Spirit that speaketh to the Churches in the Word The Golden Reed can measure every Cubit of the Temple as well the outer Porch as the Holy of Holiest and all the dimensions the length and bredth of the City which is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord is there If the Scripture be no Rule of Church Government but the Magistrates Sword be upon the shoulders of Christ as the prime Magistrate we come too near to the Jewish Earthly and Temporary Mesâ—iah And if Excommunication and Censures and that Ministerial Governing which was undeniably in the Apostolick Church be Fictions we are in the dark I confesse we know not whether the Vessels of the House should be of Gold and Silver or if they should be but Earthen Pitchers It is said That all this is but a Plea for a Dominion of an higher Nature even over the Consciences of men by Censures But why a Dominion Because a power of Censures Surely if they were not Spiritual Censures and such as hath influence on the Conscience we should yield a Domination were the businesse But this power of Censuring Spiritually is as strong as Authoritative in Dispensing Rebukes Threats Gospel-charges and Commands in the Word Preached as in Censures The power is Ministerial only in the Word not Lordly and why should it be deemed a Dominion and an Arbitrary power in the one and not in the other If the will of the Magistrate may carve out any Government that seems good to him and the Word of God in this plea be laid aside as perfect in Doctrine but imperfect and uselesse in Government we fall from the Cause But if the Word of God stand as a Rule in matters of Church-Government then the Question is only on whose shoulders the Ark should be carried and by whose Ministery doth Jesus the Lord and King of the House punish if I may use this word Scandalous men And whether doth the Head of the Church Christ in laying Judgement to the Line and Righteousnesse to the Plummet use the Magistrates Sword for a Spiritual and Supernatural end of the Service and Ministery of his Church or doth he send Pastors and Teachers as his Ambassadors for this end But if you were not
Thes say Est not â— quâdam insignire et in aliquem animadvertere ut censores apud Romanos notare aliquem solebant they expound it the publike note of Excommunication Beza saith it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie and declare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notate veluti inustâ not â compungite So Calvin Marlorat And I wonder that Erastus can say with any that it is in our power to converse or not to converse with wicked men are we not discharged by Gods Spirit to converse with them As we are commanded to eat and drinke at the Lords Table and is it in our power morally to obey or disobey any Commandement of God Except Erastus will say with Papists that God doth here give counsels not commands Rom. 16. 17. 2 Thes 3. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 9 11. And whereas Erastus saith Paul will have us 2 Thes 3. 15. to admonish this man as a brother Ergo In holy things and in the Sacraments that are helpes of piety and Salvation we are not to â—ast him off It is true the cast out man is not to be reputed as an enemy but a brother Yet a sicke and diseased brother under the roughest Medicine of the Church to wit the rod of Excommunication that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. But withdrawing of brotherly fellowship is not a meere civill unbrothering of him for if the brotherly fellowship of Christians must be spirituall religious and for the edifying of one anothers soules for exhorting one another to prevent hardning of heart for provoking one another to love and to good works to teach one another to comfort and support one another as we are expresly commanded by the Holy Ghost Heb. 3. 13. Heb. 10. 24. Col. 3. 16. 1 Thess 5. 11 14. Mal. 3. 16. Jer. 50. 5. Zach. 8. 22. Psal 42. 4. I wonder where Erastus learned this Divinity to say the denying of this edifying Communion to a scandalous brother while he be ashamed and repent Is to deny nothing that belongeth to his salvation Admonition is but one of twenty comfortable acts of Communion which we deny not to him least the man should despaire and we should cast off all care hope or intention to save his soul whereas the genuine and intrinsecall intention of avoiding him and casting him out of the Church is that he may be saved Lastly we deny not admonition and preaching of the word to the man thus cast out because they be converting Ordinances simply necessary to work the mans humiliation and repentance but the Lords Supper is a confirming Ordinance and denied to the excommunicated while he is in that condition upon that very reason that it is denied to Pagans and Heathens and though it be an help of piety it is no help either to a Pagan or an excommunicate man but damnation But it may be the excommunicate man hath faith I answer To us in the Court of the Church in which the Seals are dispensed he hath no more then a Heathen hath and therefore in confirming Ordinances he is looked on by the Church as an Heathen and if the reason of Erastus be good The Church is to deny no helps of godlinesse and salvation to him though we deny private food to his body because the Sacraments are necessary helps Then 1. I much doubt if the Church be to deny the necessary helps of godlinesse and salvation to a Pagan living amongst us Ergo shall we not deny the Sacraments to a Pagan 2. We are not to avoid his company and deny the edifying acts of Communion which I named before for these are necessary helps of salvation 3. It is not the mans sin by this reason That he eateth and drinketh unworthily for if it be not the Churches sin to give him the seals because the Seals are adminiclees and helps of piety and saving of the soul by the same reason it is not the mans sin to receive the Lords Supper for it must be equally an help of godlinesse and salvation to the Communicant receiving as to the Church giving Now Paul saith 1 Cor. 11. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh to himself judgement So Erastus teacheth us that it may be a sin to Swine publikely known to be such to receive pearles when it is no sin but the Churches duty to give these pearls to such known Swine which is most absurd and impious Erastus I said before that God doth not exclude sinners from the Sacraments but gather them in to them that they may be more and more invited to repentance and more easily raised up again for Sacraments and so many Ceremonies also were for this end ordained that they might draw men to the love and care of true piety and holynesse as Moses saith Deut. 14. Ans Erastus acknowledgeth this to be no new Argument therefore we may passe it it is the chief pillar of his opinion But I put it in forme thus to Erastus Those whom God inviteth to repentance those he will not exclude from the Sacraments But now under the Gospel he inviteth all even many Pagans and Heathen to repentance 1 Tim. 2. 4. God will have all even Heathen Magistrates to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth so Act. 17. 30. God now commandeth all men every where even the Idolators and blinde Philosophers at Athens who erected an Altar to the unknown God ver 23. and who jeered at the Doctrine of the Resurrection ver 32. even those God inviteth to repentance Ergo God excludeth not Pagans from the Sacraments but the conclusion is absurd and blasphemous therefore so must one of the premises be but the Assumption is Scripture Ergo The Major Proposition of Erastus must be blasphemous God inviteth scorners to repentance and rebukes are means of repentance Ergo we may rebuke scorners Gods spirit saith Rebuke not a scorner Prov. 9. 7 8. His Proposition then must be Those whom God inviteth to repentance those God excludeth not from any mean of piety and sanctity It is most false God inviteth Dogs and Swine to repentance and commandeth them to be holy and the pearls of the Gospel are means of repentance and holinesse Must we therefore Cast pearls to dogs and swine The contrary our Saviour injoyneth Matth. 7. 6. 2. Moses Deut. 14. 1. forbiddeth diverse Ceremonies and Sacraments of the Heathen by this Argument Ye are the children of the Lord your God and he saith expresly that the stranger may eat some unclean thing but the Lord saith to them You shall not do so for thou art an holy people to the Lord thy God Whence it is evident Moses saith poynt blank contrary to Erastus for Moses saith that Ceremonies and Sacraments are for this end to draw only the holy and sanctified people of God to a further love and study of true piety and sanctity was not the eating of the Passeover a mean of Repentance as well
Christian Magistrate saith he if there be any Church Censure as we suppose there is this Objection should not have been made against us because of the Magistrates supremacy it doth conclude with equall strength that Pastors should use it against no man Now there be some swine that trample the Sacraments some not well instructed in the grounds of Christian Religion and Erastus said pag. 207. Such should not be admitted to the Lords Supper Now the Magistrate the King is such Let Erastians say the Pearles of the Seals of the Covenant are to be given to no swine except the swine be Magistrates and that which the Church bindeth on earth is bound in heaven except it be the Magistrate Erastus saith he may go to Hell by priviledge of his place and that whose sins the Elders of the Church retaineth are retained except it be the Kings sins and that we are to put shame upon scandalous persons and to refuse to eat with them Romanes 16. 17. 2 Thess 3. 14 15. 1 Cor. 5. 11. 2 Ioh. 10. Except they be Magistrates Sure God is no accepter of persons Erastus Whereas you say it is not lawfull for the Magistrate to preach and administer the Sacraments if he might because of his businesse be able to discharge both Offices it is not true God hath not forbidden it it was lawfull in the Old Testament for one man to discharge both why is it not lawfull now also the history of Eli and Samuel is known it is nothing that you say that the tribunall of Moses was distinguished from the tribunall of Aaron for God gave to Aaron no tribunall at all different from the tribunall of Moses he never did forbid the Priests to sit in the Civill judicature after the captivity the Priests judged the people Ezech. 44. Ans That it is lawfull for the Magistrate to preach and Administer the Sacraments 1. Destroyeth the Ordinance of Pastors and a sent and called Ministry under the New Testament against the Scriptures Heb 5. 4 No man taketh on him this honour to himself except he that is called of God as was Aaron So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high Priest c. â— 2. God often maketh an honour of a calling to the Ministery that he hath separated them to it Numb 16 9. Moses saith to Korah hear now â—e sons of Levi Seemeth it a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord Deut. 10. 8. At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister unto him Numb 8 6. 7. 8. 9. But that same honour is put upon the Preachers of the Gospel Rom â— 1. Paul the servant of Iesus Christ called to be an Apostle separated unto the Gospell of God Act. 13. 2. The holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them If it be an honour and no man though gifted as Christ was can take honour to himself No Magistrate can take on him to discharge the office of a Minister Object But when he is called to be a Magistrate he is called to be a Minister and so being called to the one he is called by the same calling to the other Ans If being called to be Magistrate he be also called to be a Minister then being called to be a Minister he is called to be a Magistrate and Hoc ipso that he is a Minister be may usurpe the sword and usurpe the Throne and the Bench But Christ being sent to be a Prophet and to preach the Gospel Esa 61. 1. Luk. 4. 20. 21. veâ— 43. refused to divide the inheritance and to be a a Iudge Luk. 12. 13 14. He would not take on him to be a judge except God had made him and called him to be a judge If any say the Magistrate being the supream place containeth eminently all inferior offices as to be a Minister a Lawyer a Physitian c. but the inferior does not containe the superior I Ans Then the Magistrate being called to be a Magistrate and King he is called to be a Priest to burn incense which the Lord condemned in his word in Vzzah then when Saul is called to be a King he is called to be an Astronomer Lawyer Physitian Sayler Tayler Now God giveth a spirit to be a King but no gifts to those offices Ergo No calling thereunto for no gifts argue no calling of God 2. If a man called to be a judge be also by that same calling by which he is made a judge made a Minister then it is all one to be called to be a judge and to be a Minister and so a Magistrate as a Magistrate doth preach and administrate the Sacraments then 1. All Magistrates should preach and administrate the Sacraments and Nero and heathen Magistrates are gifts actu primo given by Christ ascending on high for the edifying the body of the Church Ephe. 4. 11 12. Obj. It is not sinne to him to preach and administrate the Sacraments but then he cannot have time for both Ans If God lawfully call the Magistrate to preach the Gospel woe be to him if he preach not he should lay aside all other imployments and preach God never gave a talent and calling to any to preach but he ought to lay aside other things and imploy that talent to the honour of God otherwise he sinneth in digging his Lords talent in the earth whereas he is obliged to make five talent ten 2. If he preach as a Pastor not as a Magistrate then he hath another calling of God to be a Pastor and another to be a Magistrate and â—â—rtaine it is as a Magistrate he doth not preach because there be farre other qualifications required in a Magistrate as Deut. 1. 12. that he be wise and understanding and knowen and a man of truth hating coveteousnesse Exo. 18. 21. But there is farre other qualities required in a Bishop 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. Ergo it is one thing to be called to be a Minister and another to be called to be a Magistrate 3. In all the word Christ never commanded the Magistrate to preach and baptise this negative Argument Erastus useth often against us to prove that none ought to be excluded from the Sacraments because Priests Prophets Christ Apostles never excluded any But Christ commanded the Ministers to preach and baptise and gave them the Holy Ghost for that effect and sent them as the father sent him as having received all power from the father Math. 28. 18 19 20. Mark 16. 15 16. Ioh. 20. 20 21 22. and least we should think this charge was given to Apostles as Apostles he teacheth that it is given to all faithfull Pastors to the end of the world Math. 28. v. 20. Lo
himselfe also in and through Pastors as his servants as Erastus teacheth then he must consent that they threaten and rebuke himselfe 2. The proposition is false it is presumed all the subjects do consent to lawfull penall Lawes against sorcery murther incest in the generall and virtually that they shall be put in execution against themselves yet the Sorcerer will never formally consent that he himselfe be put to death though he once as a subject consented to the Law that all Sorcerers be put to death For when the penall Law against sorcery was enacted he consented to this 3. He whose consent accumulative is requisite that scandalous offenders in generall be Excommunicated but not that this or this man possibly the Magistrate himselfe he is not to be Excommunicated is most false he whose consent negative is requisite for Excommunication he is not to be Excommunicated himself the proposition is true But I assume the Magistrates consent negative is requisite to Excommunication there is nothing more false For shall that which the Church bindeth on earth not be bound in heaven except the King the Iustice or Master Constable say Amen to it on earth We say not that the Magistrates consent as a Magistrate is requisite for the Excommunicating of himselfe For though as a Magistrate he ought to give his consent to Excommucate all offenders and adde his civill sanction as one of the seven wise men of Greece said Patere legem quam ipse tuleris Yet he is not Excommunicated as a Magistrate except with Kata-baptists you condemne the Office of Magistracie as an unlawfull Ordinance but as a scandalous man 3. The old penances as they do us that service to make good that Excommunication was in the ancient Church and that Erastus wanteth the authority of the Fathers and upon his ingenuity should have been ashamed to cite them for his way so we condemne them as introductory to Popery but let Erastus forme an Argument from this and logick shall hisâ—e at it That which bringeth in old satisfactions and penance is not to be holden But Excommunication or the Excommunicating of Magistrates doth this Ergo The assumption must be proved Erastus It hath no more truth which you say that the Magistrate while he punisheth cureth not the conscience for God calleth many by tribulations to himselfe and farre more then by your Excommunication Ans I would Erastus had drawen up an Argument which seldome he doth for this it must be That which is a saving mean to gaine scandalous offenders to Iesus Christ and better then Excommunication is an Ordinance of God and the other no Ordinance But the Magistrates punishing with the sword the scandalous offenders is a saving meane to gaine scandalous offenders and better then Excommunication Ergo Ans Neither Major nor Minor proposition hath any truth at all 1. Though the Magistrates sword were a better meane to gain souls it followeth not that Excommunication is no mean The Law is lesse powerfull for gaining souls The Gospel more powerfull But the Law is not for that no Ordinance of God 2. Erastus his reason to prove that the Magistrates punishing cureth the conscience as a saving Ordinance no lesse then Excommunication must be this That by which God calleth and draweth many to himselfe is a saving mean to cure the conscience but by the Magistrates punishing of scandalous men God doth this as by other tribulations The proposition must be a propositio per se That by the Magistrates heading and hanging scourging and imprisoning of themselves as kindly and intrinsecally saving means such as rebukes promises commands excommunication are the Lord calleth men and converteth them that is false God no more useth the Sword of the Magistrate as a kindly mean of gaining souls then the sword of an oppressing Tyrant so Nebuchadnezzars oppressing of the Church of God and the Assyrians unjust wasting of the people of Israel shall be kindly means of gaining of souls because God blessed the rod to many to humble their uncircumcised heart but this is accidentall to and beside the nature of the rod but it is not accidentall to rebuking threatning promises to the preaching of the Gospel nor to Excommunication to save souls and gaine them to Christ The Gospel and all the parts of it are kindly and of themselves the power of God to salvation The Magistrates sword to Erastus must be the power of God to salvation and Christ Matth. 18. in his order of gaining an offending brothers soul by this reason must descend not ascend contrary to the order of Christ for Christ maketh the rebuking between brother and brother to be the first step of gaining an offender to Christ 2. The rebuking before two or three 3. Before the Church 4. Excommunication Now all these are spirituall means and more efficacious the second then the first the third then the second the fourth then any of them But Erastus maketh Christ in the fourth step to descend from three spirituall steps of gaining the mans soul to a fourth which is carnall to wit let him be as a heathen c. this is Caesars sword which certainly is a carnall weapon proper to the Kingdomes of this world Ioh. 18. 36. whereas rebuking exhorting promises and Excommunication are the spirituall weapons of the warfare of the Ministers of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 8 9. Rev. 1. 16. Esai 11. 4. Psal 45. 4. Rom. 1. 16. The exercise of the sword is a mean of edifying consequenter by removing false teachers that hindreth edification but no man can say it is a mean of it self and kindly in regard of the man against whom the sword is used Farther that which is a common mean of conserving peace in all societies and corporations even without the Church where the Gospel was never heard cannot be a kindly mean of gaining mens souls that are within the visible Church Erastus Ambrose following the example of Azariah cannot be defended in debarring Theodosius from the Sacraments Yea it was tyranicall and damnable to debarre a man desirous to hear the word who otherwayes repented and acknowledged his fault from the means of salvation It was like the Popes proud fact in trampling â—on the Emperours neck he had no cause of wrath against Theodosius but as Nicephorus saith the Emperour hated Ambrose Ans 1. If Erastus had come to Logick he refuteth here but a Law by a fact of Ambrose 2. What if Ambrose debarred Theodosius from hearing the word Ergo there is no Excommunication it followeth not 3. That he debarred Theodosius from the Sacrament after he gave evidences of his repentance to the Church is an untruth 4. That after such a cruell fact of murthering so many innocent persons of Thessalonica Theodosius should have been admitted to the Sacrament or remained a Member of the Church to eat and drink his owne damnation and not be cast out as 1 Cor. 5. no man but Erastus could say so it is cleare that
Christ spake many things to them that they bothforgot knew not till the holy Ghost came upon them And their not asking Question will not prove they understood all he spake sometimes they were afraid to ask him 2. The Jewish and Christian Church have not such essentiall differences but they knew by the ordinary notion of the word Church a Convention that professed the Doctrine of the Prophets and of the Law and Gospel And what such great difference is there between a brother and a brother Iew and a Brother Gentile as they behoved to understand the one and be utterly ignorant of the other And what necessity to restrict it to Iews only Christ had often spoken to them of the incoming of the Gentiles as Matth. 8. 11. Joh. 10. 16. Matth. 10. 18. Did the Disciples know the Kings Councels Indicatures of the Gentiles that Christ said they should be convented before Matth. 10. 17 18 19 And because Erastus is so confident that the word Church here is the Civill Magistrate Let any Erastian teach me what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church Matth. 16. 19. Is it the Civill Magistrate Is the Civill Magistrate built on a Rock Shall the Ports of Hell never prevail against the Civill Magistrate Can no Magistrate make defection from the truth And doth Erastus or his believe in their conscience that the Disciples understood Christ Matth. 16. for he spake of both to the Disciples to speak of the stability and strength and perseverance of the Christian Magistrate And that the Ports of Hell should never prevail against the Iewish Sanedrim and Church which crucified the Lord of glory and persecuted his Apostles and all professing the Name of Iesus to the death 3. Heathen and Publican in generall were names as opposite to Christian Brethren as to Iewish Brethren as I have proved before Erastus The vvord Church to the Hebrevvs signifieth either a multitude or the Senate or Magistrate as Num. 35. Church is four times Josh 20. Tvvâ—ce Psal 82. Once and it signifies the Magistrate So vve say the Empire hath done vvhat the Emperour vvith the States of the Empire hath done So the Church or Convention think so because the chief amongst them think so the Common Wealth hath done this because the Senate hath done this Ans The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Num. 35. 12. But in all that Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now how this signifieth one Magistrate which ever signifieth a collection or multitude of rulers I leave to the learned so Erast faileth yet in his probation 2. Suppose the word Church signifie the heads of the people how shall Erastus prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth the senate of Civill Magistrates for in this Congregation were the Priests and Levites especially that judge between blood and blood voluntary or involuntary homicide Deut. 17. â—2 13 14. 2 Chr. 19. 8 9. It is true also that the man that killed another unwittingly was to be protected in the City of refuge while he should stand before the faces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Congregation But let Erastus and all who will have the Bishop or the Pope the representative Church know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Congregation ever and alwayes be a collective word as populus the people signifieth a multitude never by Grammer one single man hoc nomen saith Pagnine certum conventum sive cetum significat certum Collegium it alwayes signifieth a socâ—eâ—ie as the Princes of the Congregation Num. 16. 2. all the Princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Congregation Exo. 34. 31. here is a number and a societie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle can be atributed to no fewer then to three at least Speak to all the Congregation of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exodus 12. 3. and the Congregations of peoples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall compasse thee about Psal 7. 8. Nor shall sinners stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Congregation of the just Psal 1. 5. Thou hast made desolate all my Congregation Iob. 16 7. 2. The word is from a root that signifieth to conveene and gather together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Iud. 14. 8. a swarme or a Congregation of Bees is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Congregation And that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church since the world began never signified one single man either King Magistrate Pope or Prelate But alwayes a multitude either of rulers or people I appeal to Demosthenes Homer Phoâ—illides Hesiod Lucian Pluto Aristotle to Suidâ—â— Stephanus Scapula or for the word Cetus Congâ—egatio to all Latine Authors to the seventy interpreters in the Old Testament to Hyâ—ronimus all the Greek Fathers and to the Evangelists and Apostles in the New Testament to Act. 19. 32. Eph. 5. 23. Act. 8. 13. Rom. 16. 5. 1 Cor. 1. 2. 2 Cor. 1. 1. Gal. 1. 2. 1 Thes 1. 1. 2 Thess 1. 1. Act. 15. 3 4 22. Act. 16. 5. Act. 14. 23. Rev. 1. 20. Rev. 2. 1. and for Psal 82. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a Congregation of Gods or Magistrates and v. 6. All of you are Children of the most high he speaketh evidently of a multitude of Iudges 3. Suppose the Empire be said to do what the Senate Parliament or great Councell of the Empire or Kingdome doth This will not prove that the word Church in either of the Originall Tongues Hebrew or Greek doth signifie one man so as Tell the Church must be all one with Tell one single Magistrate or Tell one Prelate or one Pope and he that will not hear the Magistrate that is the King or one single Magistrate alone without any fellow Magistrates he being a Christian is to be dealt with as an heathen and a publican and not as a Christian brother For what the King doth alone without his Senate is never called the deed of the Senate farre lesse the act or deed of the whole Ecclesia of the Kingdome produce any shaddow of Grammer for this Now to Erastus Tell the Church is all one with Tell the single Christian Magistrate alone separated from Fellow-judges or Councell Senate Parliament Ecclesiasticall Assemblies and if he hear not and obey not this one single Christian Magistrate let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican For Erastus will have the Civill Magistrate though the whole Church and Pastors should judge the contrary to have power by vertue of his office to determine against Pastors and Elders Yea by his office he is to command them to preach and synodically to determine this and this and what they determine they do à et sub Magistratu under and from this one single Magistrate as his servants instruments Vicars and deputies and therefore the Magistrate cannot sentence in the name of Pastors Elders when they are but his servants And 2. When he may by his office do
to himselfe the Ministery in its exercise 1. Because this promise is accumulative and of a temporall reward for the Magistrate as the Magistrate cannot promise that which Peter promiseth that 1. 1 Pet. 5. 4. When the chiefe shepheard shall appeare they shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away he may as a Christian promise that but for a temporall reward for men no man for being faithfull in the house of God hath that unseparably annexed to his labours by a literall promise in Scripture and therefore it is onely accumulative 2. Right and sound preaching and governing in Gods house cannot from this be said to bee subjected to the Magistrate as a Magistrate in regard that this is an accidentall hire and an externall and accessorie good which the Church as the Church and the most faithfull Prophets Apostles and Pastors have wanted and yet have attained the end of a Church as a Church visible nor is this a promise made to the Church as the Church or the Ministers thereof as such for the Apostolick church that was most poor had neither thing nor name nor promise but by the contrary the Kings and Rulers did conspire against the Kingdome of the son of God VI. Assertion Though the Magistrate may both threaten to inflict and actually inflict the ill of temporall punishment on Ministers if they be either idle or unsound in their administration yet thence can onely be concluded that the male administration of the ministerie is subjected to the Magistrate as such but not the Ministery it selfe or the exercise thereof 1. The male administration of any office is accidentall to the office 2. This subjecteth the erring person not the teaching Minister to the civill Magistrate Nor doth this make the Ministers in the exercise of their office properly subordinate to the Ministers but onely so farre as the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets VII Assertion There is a twofold subordination of the exercise of Male administration of Ministers one civill another Ecclesiasticall These two differ so as the former must be subordinate to the Magistrate who is to inflict bodily punishment but the latter is onely subject to the Church The Judiciall determination according to the Word of God for the informing of the conscience and gaining to the truth the erring Ministers is proper to the Colledge of Ministers and in this if the colledge of Ministers erre they are also punishable and the Magistrate is to command them to judge and determine de novo over again The Magistrate in a constitute church is to determine civilly and sentence and civilly punish the Ministers that either are dumbe dogs and will not barke or that perverts the souls of people with false doctrine and where the Church is constituted it is presumed that the Priests whose lips should preserve knowledge have determined in an Ecclesiasticall way the very same which the Iudge civilly is to determine not because the Church hath so determined but because he judgeth in his conscience it to be according to the Word of God VIII Assertion The Ministers are in no sort the Ambassadors or servants of the Magistrate but of Iesus Christ and immediately in their ministeriall acts subordinate to the King of Kings 1. They declare the truth in the Name of Christ their master and Lord not in the name of the Magistrate as the Arminians make the steps of the subordination 1. The Word of God 2. The Magistrate carrying Gods sword 3. The Preachers of the Gospell for then the Preachers should hear the word of the Magistrate first and have the minde of Christ spoken and revealed to them immediately from the magistrate but mediately onely by the mediation of the Magistrate the minde of Christ 2. There should be in every Christian Kingdome where there is a King a civill Pope having directly both the Swords not with the distinction of Iesuites of dixectly and directly and as they say the Pope hath the temporall sword indirectly and in ordine ad spiritualia in order to spirituall things and and how many inferiour Magistrates so many civill Popes onely they shall not be infallible Arminians say that this collection is from envie Because we say they deny a headship and supremacy of power of Governement to your Pastors and Elders in all your Parishes which maketh the Church a Monster with many heads therefore you put this for envy upon the Magistrate who yet hath the word of God above him which the Pope hath not who setteth himself above the Word of God Ans 1. If we give a supremacy royall and princely to the Ministers which they call Archiâ—ectonica as the adversaries doe to the Magistrate multitudes of Popes behoved to be in the Church but we make them meer Heralds Trumpeters and Messengers to relate the will of God void of all royall power and having neither earthly majesty power nor Sword 2. It is not our Argument that in which they conceive we repose to wit that we thinke the adversaries resolve all ultimatè and last which concerneth the government of the Church in the will of the Magistrate as on an infallible rule we grant they teach that the Word of God is to rule the Magistrate in the matters of the first Table and justice and equity in the things of the second Table but they say this in words onely but the Magistrate as Magistrate may mould out of his high dominion what Church government he will and this by consequent resolveth all in the Magistrates will and that they teach that when the Magistrate doth command against the Word of God then it is better to obey God then men And 2. This we infer as an absurdity that they cannot shun that there is such a new officer a new Church head a creature most like a Pope in every Christian Kingdome brought in the Church who is above Bishops Pastors Doctors who by office must carry the minde of God to Pastor and people who hath the keyes of the House to make and unmake call and send recall and exantorate ministers as his Servants and Heralds 3. Looke what power the Magistrate as a Magistrate hath in civill affaires the same hath he in dispensing Word Sacraments admitting to or rejecting from the Sacraments calling of ministers excommunicating by this way and so by office he is no lesse essentially a Pastor to watch for the soule then he is a civill Judge 4. How doth this confound the two Kingdomes the Kingdome that is of this world and fighteth with the Sword and the Kingdome that is not of this world and fighteth not with the Sword if the magistrate as the magistrate and armed with the sword be the supream Head over both and as he beareth the Sword have a carnall dominion over the Church as the Church 5. If God have made the subordination of ministers as ministers and servants of the magistrate as a magistrate then the visible Church hath no
ordinary right to Ordinances Word Sacraments discipline but by the magistrate and all that the Churches did in the Apostles times or the first three hundred yeers after Christ being contrary to the magistrates will must be either seditious or then it was by no rule of the Gospell but by an extraordinary dispensation and we shall have no warrant for any dispensing of the Word and of Seals or Government from the Apostolique Church because all that must have beene beside the rule and extraordinary 6. From this pretended subordination as the supream magistrate may doe all that the inferiour magistrate may doe because the King is eminently all that the inferiour Magistrate is and something more so may he dispense the Word and Sacraments in regard that the King is by the same officiall power over the Church as the Church in sacris in all matters of Religion as in civill things and containeth in him in a high and eminent manner all that the Church and Pastors can doe as they are such and because the King hath the same power in all Arts and Trades then by his Royal power he might if he had time and leasure build houses because of his royall Eminency over all Trades he might sit at the helme of any ship and steer and rule it he might paint Images he might plow the ground because he hath the like Royall power over masons Sailors Painters Husband-men carpenters and the like as he hath over the common-wealth and the Church we must then say that God hath called the King to all these to be a minister a mason a Sailor a Painter and if he had leasure he hath Gods calling to be a Preacher a Sailor as to be a King yea and that as King he is all these Now the Apostle clearly distinguisheth between him who exhorteth and teacheth in the Church Rom. 12. and him who is the Minister of God and beareth not the sword in vaine Rom. 13. and clearly insinuateth a distinction of calling so that God never called one man to all callings as it is 1 Cor. 7. 17. But as God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walke ver 20. Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called And it is clear if the King be a Head in the body 1 Cor. 12. then he is not the feet though he have need of the feet for then the eye should be both eye and eare and hand and therefore the King cannot be all Pareus in Rom. 13. saith the King cannot doe some things ob defectum juris ex Dei limitatione He cannot preach Ans Ergo Preaching belongeth by Divine right to another and it s not subordinate to him jure Divino 2. Saith Pareus he wanteth law to use the wiâ—â— of another man as his owne Ans Then the right of Husband and Wife is not subordinate to the King so as he may use the right of a Husband because it is against the seventh Commandement nor can he invade the right of Pastors to dispense Word and Sacraments it being against the second Commandment he not being called thereunto 3. Other things saith he he cannot doe for want of skill as to teach in a Colledge and others he cannot doe because they are fordid as to sew shooes Ans If God have not called the Prince to these it is not onely sordid but unlawfull for him to thrust his sickle in another mans field for God must call to a lawfull calling else men use a lawful thing unlawfully so it is sordid and unlawfull for him to judge those and the like Erastus I know roundly granteth that the King or any Magistrate may lawfully dispence the Word and Sacraments nothing hindereth him but want of time which is a better Answer then others give who hold the same principles with Erastus and that the King hath the same Royall power in things civill and Ecclesiastick except the adversary flee to our distinction of power and persons and of things civill and sacred they shall never expede themselves But the King say they is not capable of 1. The power of Order he cannot be a Pastor or a Doctor 2. He cannot as King be capable of internall power of jurisdiction he cannot preach he cannot dispense the Sacraments but he is say they capable of externall power of jurisdiction to governe the Church excommunicate to debarre Apostates and Hereticks from the Sacraments to create Prelates Primates Metropolitans and such cattell to call and ordaine make and unmake Ministers to make all Canons and Ecclesiasticall Lawes and appoint religious Ceremonies as holy Surplice crossing oyle and spittle in Baptisme to create holy dayes to command men to kneel to bread and to order all the externall worship of God and beside the Word to order many little and smaller things in the borders of worship externall such as is some little Idolatry and Superstition And for ought I know by their way who hold there is no certaine forme of Government of Gods House in the Scripture some harmelesse and innocent golden Calves as lawfull as religious symbolicall Ceremonies This power is no more due to the Magistrate as the Magistrate then to dispense the Sacraments as I have said before Nor doe the Arminians much honour the Magistrate who walking in the steps of Erastus doe hold that the Magistrate having power of publique places Preachers are obliged not to preach in publike places if the Magistrate forbid them but they may preach in private places But 1. These same Arminians hold that Pastors are to preach whatever in their conscience seems to be the truth of God a principle of those who are for tolleration of all Religions though Iudaisme Turcisme a way I am perswaded most abominable and which the Lord of his Church will crush when he shal bring down other AntichristiaÌ„ untruths to the ground Now it seems to the conscience of Papists and many Hereticall teachers that they are obliged to preach Turcisme Iudaisme in the Temple and in publike that distinction is false vain as it is in very deed contrary to the truth of God to preach what they think the truth of God to preach it in publike or private or in any place is indifferent as touching the place 2. The Lord hath no more given to Magistrates power of places or actions religious in places then he hath given to them power of truths Ergo they must be obliged in conscience rejecting a â—â—iâ— and saplesse distinction to preach in publike places for as that juditioâ—s and learned professor Iac. Triglandius saith The place is accident all to the worship and changeth not the nature of it and truly as that learned professor saith it is a poor honour that they put on the Magistrate to limit all his power to places and stipends 3. The Apostles knew not this distinction for they not only preached truth the Scribes and Pharisees forbidding
them but in publick places and at all occasions and dayly in the Temple and in every house they câ—â—sed not to teach and preach Iesus Christ Act. 6. 2 4. 4. 1. 20. 5. 20 21. The Magistrate being Antichristian forbiddeth not preaching of saving truths because of the place be it private or publick but he forbiddeth them because they are saving and if Iesus Christ have called a man to preach in publick in the house tops the Magistrate hath no power from God to silence him in publick more then in private the Magistrate forbiddeth that any teach false Doctrine not for the place but because it is injurious and hurtfull to humane societies that men should be principled in a false Religion and cannot but disturbe the publick peace IX Asser The Christian magistrate must here come under a threefold consideration 1. As the Object of that high office is meerly and purely civill and positive relating only to a civill end of Peace as in importing or exporting of goods of wooll waxe moneys for the good of the common-wealth the crying up or crying downe of the value of coyned Gold or Silver the making of Lawes meerly civill as not to carry Armor in the night in such a City So in Warre Commanders Captains and Colonels are Magistrates to order the Battle lay stratagems the way of besieging Townes of fortifying Castles of issuing out mandates for the Navy The Parliaments power in disposing of Fouling Fishing Hunting Eating of Flesh or not eating at such a time all these as the Word of God doth not particularly warrant the one side more then the other are meerly civill and positive It is sure the Magistrate hath a supremacy and an independency above the Church or Ministers of the Gospel in all these and as these prescinde from all Morality of the first and second Table I hold that neither the power nor person of the Magistrate is subordinate to the Church and Church-assemblies and Ministers of the Gospel should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and exceed the limits and bounds of their calling if they should meddle with these as the Church should exceed their bounds if they should make Canons touching the way of sayling painting tilling the earth according to such and such principles of Art for these are without the sphere of the Churches activity in this consideration that learned and grave Divine Doctor Andrew Rivetus in Decalo in c. 5. saith well pag. 204. That as we beleeve a man well skilled in his owne Art so that his judgement is a supream rule so the supream authority of the Magistrate to us in things positive is a rule for indeed it cannot be denied but there be Arcana Imperiâ— secrets of State that are not to be communicated to Pastors or to any in which the Rulers have a supremacy The Magistrate falleth under a second consideration as he giveth out Lawes just or unjust and executeth judgement in the morning or suffereth the eyes of the poore the widdow and Orphane to faile for went of justice and in these he is not subject to the Church and Pastors so but only as if he sinne in making Lawes the Pastors may humbly supplicate that he would recall those unjust Lawes and judge over againe righteous judgement and this exhorting of the Pastors is a subjecting of the Magistrate to the Pastors quoad actus imperatos so have Generall assemblies in the Church of Scotland humbly supplicated the King and Parliament to retreat Laws made against the liberties of the Church in savour of Antichristian Prelates and Ceremonies but quoad actus elicitos The Church and Pastors themselves cannot usurpe the throne and give out civill Lawes that are righteous and judge righteously for the poor in the place of King Parliament and Iudges for in this also the judges are supream and independent and subject only to God the Creator as his Vicars and Deputies in Gods universall Kingdome of power called universale regnum potentiae by Divines they are Gods and the shields of the world and here only as they erre not as they iudge are they subject to rebukes and threatnings and admonitions of the Church and Ministers of the Gospel Even as the Magistrate may command the Pastors to preach and dispense the Sacraments aright but the Magistrate himselfe can neither preach nor dispense the Sacraments so the Schoolmen say that the actions of the understanding depend on the will quoad excercitium the will may set the mind to think on this or that truth but not quoad specificationem The will it selfe can neither assent nor dissent from a truth nor can the will command the mind to assent to a known untruth or dissent from a known truth the mind or understanding naturally doth both and this distinction holdeth in acts of the civill power and in acts meerly Ecclesiasticall The third consideration of the Christian Magistrate is as he is a man and a member of a Christian Church who hath a soul to be saved and in this he is to submit to Pastors as those that watch for his soul Heb. 13. 17. as others who have souls to be saved X. Ass Hence I am not affraid to assert a reciprocation of subordinations between the Church and the Magistrate and a sort of collaterality and independent supremacy in their own kind common to both for every soul Pastors and others are subject to the Magistrate as the higher power in all civill things Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4. Tit. 3 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Mat. 22. 21. and all members of the common-wealth being members of the Church in soul-matters are subject to the Church and Pastors in their authoritative dispensing of Word Sacraments and Church censures Nor are any Magistrates or other who have souls excepted Heb. 13. 17. Mat. 16. 19. Mat. 18. â—8 Joh. 20. 21. Act. 15. 20 21 22 23. Mat. 10. 4â— 41 42. So Protestant writers who have written on this subject Teach As the learned Walens judicious Trig. that most learned Divine And. Rivetus the grave and learned professors of Leyden Zipperus Calv. Petr. Cabel Javiâ—â— reverend and pious M. Iohn Cotton judicious P. Mar. D. Pareus all the Protestant confessions The Augustine confession distinctly of Helvetia The confession of Sweden the Saxon. The English confession and that of Scotland all our Divines while Erastus Vtenbogard Hu. Grotius Vedelius Bullinger Gualthâ—rus going before them yet not every way theirs did teach the contrary The Arminians in Holland did thus flatter the Magistrate for their owne politick ends and some Court Divines made the King of England Head of the Church in the place of the Pope which P. Mar. excused and expounded benignly some say it is against reason that there should be two supream collaterall powers and especially in a mutuall subordination But can we deny this reciprocation of subordinations it is evident in many things if the King be in an extream feaver one of his own subjects a
King was to use the sword in defence of the Law and punishing Idolaters for 1. the King is neither commanded to teach Priests and people out of the booke of the Law Nor 2. rebuked for his neglect in this both these we may read of the Priests every where in the Prophets Deut. 33. 10. Mal. 2. 7. Lev. 10. 10 11. Ier. 2. 8. and 6. 13 14. Hos 4. 6 7 8. Deut. 17. 11 12. yea the booke of the Law is put in the keeping of the Priests and Levites Deut. 31. 25. And Moses commanded the Levites which bare the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord saying 26. Take this book of the Law and put it in the side of the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord your God Now if the Priests had been onely the Kings servants immediately subordinate to the King and mediately onely to Iesus Christ the Arke all the holy things the booke of the covenant the burning of incense before the Lord had been principally and first injoyned to the King Ezra the Priest read the book of the Law not Nehemiah nor was it ever commanded that the King should read it in the hearing of the people and give the sense of it as the Priests were to doe by their office Hilkiah 2 Kin. 22. found the booke of the Law that was lost and Shaphan the Scribe read it before the King that they might see their Apostacie and Iosiah might accordingly reforme 2 King 22 9 10. Object 11. Isai 49. Kings shall be thy Nurse-fathers Ergo Kings were Fathers and heads of the Church Ans This text is brought for the Popes Supremacy but it is Isai 60. 10. Their Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall serve thee this is no dominion And the breasts of Kings which the Church is to suck is not the sincere milk of the Word which the King preacheth by himself or others but the externall strength dignity that the King shall adde by his Authority to the Church but the Tutor cannot â—ob the Pupil of the Law and priviledges of the inheritance 2. The Prince is not a father spirituall of the second birth of the Church as Paul was 1 Cor. 4. 15. Object 12. He for whom we are to pray that under him we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty and procureth the good of the Church as the Church to him as the supream Officer and Shepherd is the Church as the Church subject but the Magistrate is such 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. Ergo. Ans The Major is false and the Assumption untrue also and all that the conclusion can bring forth is that the Prince hath 1. An externall coactive care by way of dominion to procure the removall of Wolves from the fold 2. To procure the good of the Church in order to a naturall and civill good 3. To procure good to the Church as the Church in a coactive way by the sword in punishing Idolators 2. The Church as the Church is not subordinate to the Prince but as Subjects of the common wealth because he by a coactive power may procure the good of the Church as the Church for indirectly and by the sword the Magistrate defending godlines and procuring the good of souls doth not prove that his dominion and sword extendeth to their soules or that he watcheth for their soules as Heb. 13. 17. Obj. 13. The Kings of Israel and Iudah have reformed Religion Ans I cannot trouble the Reader to adde here what I have answered elsewhere but let the Reader see Triglandius Ant. Walens Gabel Iavius in the cited places they have in the defection of the Priests which is extraordinary Reformed Religion 2. They did many things as Prophets not as Magistrates 3. They have done much in Religion quoad actus imperatos non elicitos by their civill power commanding Priests to doe their dutie Object 14. It s true in severall respects he that is a Governour may be a subject but in one and the same spirituall respect to judge and to be judged to sit on the Bench and stand at the barre of Christ Iesus is as impossible as to reconcile the East and the VVest together so The Bloodie Tenent I demand if the Church be a Delinquent who shall judge It is answered the magistrate Again if the magistrate be a delinquent I ask who shall judge it It is answered The Church Whence I observe which is in most cases of the world monstrous that one person to wit the Church or the Magistrate shall be at one time the delinquent at the Barre and the judge upon the Bench for the Church must judge when the magistrate offends and yet the magistrate must judge when the Church offends whether she contemâ—â— civill authority in the Second Table for thus dealing with him or whether she hath broken the rules of the first table of which say they God hath made him a keeper and preserver what blood what tumults hath been and must be spilt upon these grounds Ib. so the Church calleth one of her members to office and ordaineth him an officer The Magistrate opposeth him as an unworthy officer and according to his conscience suppresseth him upon this the Church complaineth of the Magistrates violation of her priviledges and that he is turned persecutor and not prevailing with admonition She excommunicateth the Magistrate The Magistrate again not induring such violation of ordinances he cutteth off with the sword such prophaners of ordinances Ans All this is but wind devised against the Magistrates punishing of Idolaters and I shew the same followeth upon the Magistrates or Church erring the one in abusing civill authority or the other in prophaning ordinances or preaching the word for instance The Iudges of a land or of Ierusalem make grievous and bloody decrees against the poor the widdows and the Orphane A faithfull Isaiah a zealous preacher by authority from the Lord judgeth and condemneth according to his conscience these judges and cryeth out as Isai 10. 1 in the name of the Lord before all the Congregation Woe be to you who decree unrighteous decrees and write in the Bench grievousnesse to turne aside the needy from judgement and to take away right from the poore Now the Magistrate that decreed those decrees judgeth in his conscience they are righteous decrees and he according to his conscience noâ— induring that Isaiah or any preacher should thus abuse and prophane so holy an Ordinance of prophecying and preaching as to preach lies in the name of the Lord he proceedeth in his civill court and cuâ—teth off with the sword such false Prophets because they â—lander the Lords annoynted and preach lies of him is not here a reciprocation of judging in the same cause What will the Author say to this O saith he the Magistrate ought not to use his sword against those Prophets for they preach according to their conscience the truth of God But say that Shimei were a Prophet and
or State a power to unjustice ad malum nâ—â—la est potestas Obj. 14. How can the Magistrate determine what the true Church and ordinances are and then set them up with the power of the sword and how can he give judgement of a â—alse Church false Ministery false Doctrine and false Ordinances and so pull them down by the sword and yet you say the Magistrate is to give no spirituall judgement of these nor hath he any spirituall power for these ends and purposes Bloody Tenent Ans The Magistrate judges of these as a Magistrate not in a Pastorall way or Ecclesiastically for then by office he should be a preacher of the Gospel but civilly as they are agreeable or contrary to the Laws of the Common-wealth made concerning Religion and in order to the civill praise and reward of stipends wages or benefices or to the bodily punishment inflicted by the sword Rom. 13. 4 5. So though the object be spirituall yet the judging is civill and the Magistrates power in setting up true or pulling downe false ordinances is objectively spirituall or civilly good or ill to speak so against the duty or agreeable to that which men owe as they are members of a civill incorporation a City or Common-wealth But the same power of the Magistrate is formally essentially in it selfe civill and of this world CHAP. XXVI Quest 22. Whether appeals are to be made from the Assemblies of the Church to the civill Magistrate King or Parliament and of Paul his appeal to Cesar FOr the clearer explanation of the question its possible these considerations may help to give light 1. There be these opinions touching the point Some exclude the Magistrate from all care of Church-discipline â— As Iesuits and Papists will have Princes not to examine what the Church the Pope and the cursed Clergy of Rome decrees in their Synods To these the Sorbonists of Paris oppose and the Parliament of France cause to be burnt by the hand of the hangman any writings of Iesuits that diminisheth the just right of the Magistrate 2. Those who in the Low-countries did remonstrate under the name of Arminians as they are called hold that the Magistrate ought to tollerate all Religions even Turcisme and Iudaisme not excepted because the conscience of man cannot be compelled Some of them were Socinians as Henry Slatius who saith right downe he that useth the sword or seeketh a Magistracy is not a Christian yea war is against the command of Iesus Christ or in any tearms to kill any saith Henry Welsingius Episcopius their chief man will have the Magistrate going no further then reall or bodily mulcts or fines Ioan. Geisteranus pronounceth it unlawfull to be a Magistrate to use the sword But all say the Magistrate ought not to use the sword against Hereticks Blasphemers Idolaters or against any man for his conscience or Religion 3. Those that think the Magistrate bear the sword lawfully yet do confine him to the defence of the halfe of Gods Law the duties of the second Table and not to these all but to such as border not directly on conscience for if some should sacrifice their children to Molech and Devils as some do the Magistrate were not to punish them it being a joynt of their Religion and a matter of conscience and all these will be found to give to the Magistrate as the Magistrate just as little as Iesuits do in the matters of Religion and that is right downe nothing except possibly the Magistrate be of their Religion only whom he Governs only as a Christian man the Magistrate hath more with these then with Papists 4. Erastus giveth all in Doctrine and Discipline both in power and exercise to the Magistrate even to the dispensing of Word and Sacraments 5. Others forsaking Erastus in a little But following him in the main deny power of order 2. Power of internall jurisdiction granteth to him all the externall government of the Church 6. We hold that the Magistrate keeps both Tables of the Law and that he hath an inspection in a civill coactive way in preserving both Tables of the Law but that he is not as a Magistrate a member of the Church but as a Christian only 2. The exercise of Discipline is one thing and the exercise of it as the modus the way of exercising of it either in relation to Ecclesiasticall constitutions or in relation to the politick and civill Laws of a Common-wealth is a far other thing 3. As the Church is to approve and commend the just sentence of the civill judge in punishing ill doers but only conditionally in so far as it is just so is the magistrate obliged to follow ratifie and with his civil sanction to confirme the sound constitutions of the Church But conditionally not absolutely and blindely but in so far as they agree with the Word of God 4. Hence there is a wronging of the Church as the Church and a civill wronging of the Magistrate as the Magistrate or of the members of the Church as such or of the members of the Common-wealth as such the former and the latter both cannot belong to one judicature No more then the failing of a Painter against the precepts of Art because he hath drawn the colours proportion and the countenance beside the samplar and the failing not against Art but against the Lawes of the King in that he hath lavished out too much gold in the drawing of the image doth belong to one judgement for the Painter as a Painter according to the Law of Art must judge of the former and the Magistrate as a Magistrate of the latter 5. An appellation is one thing and the complaint of an oppressed man is another thing or a provocation to a competent judge is one thing and the refugium the refuge and fleeing of an oppressed man to a higher power is another thing if the Church erre and fail against the Law of Christ in the matter and decree the man to be a heretick who is none and that to be heresie which is truth the oppressâ—d man in a constituted Church may have his refuge to the godly Magistrate and complain but he cannot appeal for an appellation is from an erring judge to an higher judge in eadem sâ—rie in the same nature and kinde of judicatures as from a civill Court to a higher civill Court and from an Ecclesiasticall Court to a higher as suppose the Church of Antioch judge that the Gentiles must be circumcised the godly there may appeal to the judgement of Apostles and Elders in a Councell conveened from Antioch and Ierusalem both and therefore because the Magistrate can no more judge what is heresie what truth as a Magistrate then he can dispense Word and Sacraments an appeal cannot be made to him who is no more a judge ex officio nor he can dispense the Sacraments ex officio but a complaint may be made to the Magistrate if the Church
fail in their judging the Magistrate is to command the Church to judge it over againe but the Magistrate cannot judge it himself as there is a complaint made to the Magistrate that the Pâ—inter hath not drawn the image exactly according to the samplar the Magistrate judgeth not of the Art of the Painter nor can the Magistrate as the Magistrate draw the image himselfe But the Magistrate may judge of the Painters breach of promise who did â—action to draw it exactly according to the samplar and hath not kept faith to the man who payeth him wages and therefore the Magistrate may either punish his morall error his breach of promise not his error of Art the faculty or company of Painters must judge of of that or then command the Painter to paint the same image again according as the Painter convenanted But it may be objected You then make the Magistrate to meddle no more with matters of faith and preaching truth or falsehood and giving out Ecclesiasticall rules in Church government as Act. 15. then he meddleth with painting according to the principles of Art now painting according to Art belongeth not at all to the conscience of the Magistrate but sound preaching right ruling in Gods house belongeth in a far nearer relation to the conscience of the godly Magistrate I Answer As touching the formall judging Ecclesiastâ—cally and as concerning this that the Magistrate should say it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to me or his dispensing of Word and Sacraments or his burning incense before the Lord it no more belongeth to him as a Magistrate to do these in his owne person formally because God hath not called him to act these then it belongeth to him to paint an Image to sew shooes to siâ— at the helme of a Ship and stir and guide her to such a Port as is clearer Heb. 5. 4. 1 Cor. 7. 17. 21. Rom. 10. 14. 1 Tim. 5. 17. and 3. 1 2 3. Act. 13. 23. and 20. 28 29 30. Heb. 13. 17. 2 Chro. 26. 18 19 20 21. But in another consideration as sound or unsound dispensing of Word and Sacraments as right or unjust ruling in the house of God may more or lesse hurt or benefit the souls of men which he is to care for indirectly in ordine ad penas vel premia civilia et corporalia it belongeth more to the Magistrate to take care of the Church of Religion of preaching and governing Gods house then any painting or Arts in the earth Again the Church proceeding in these things that are against common iustice in all judicatures no lesse then in the Church as to condemn the party never heard or not convinced either by confession or under two sufficient witnesses or to do manifest unjustice in the manner of proceeding leaveth a clear place to the wronged party by the Law of nature if not to appeal yet to flee and have re-course to the Christian Magistrate who is Parâ—ns Patrie the father of the Common wealth 6. The question may either be of any really wronged by the Church whether he may appeal to the Magistrate or whether he who either beleeveth or thinketh or falsly lyeth and saith that he was wronged may appeal to the Magistrate 7. An Appeal is different from a Declinature a Declinature is properly a refusing to be judged because the judge is incompetent and the businesse belongeth not to him those who follow Erastus and deny all power of censures to the Church doe decline but not appeal from the Church thinking the Church hath no power at all to judge or censure the scandalous An Appeal is properly from the same inferiour judicature to a superiour judge in eadem serie in the same kind and it is either proper or unproper Proper it is when a particular Church doth appeal to a Synod of many Churches in the same place Unproper when either a wronged person hath recourse to one or many Pastors of Authority as Chrysostome Flavianus Athanasius appealed to the Bishop of Rome that he would request the Church to proceed orderly Or 2. The godly Magistrate would command that the Church would unpartially proceed to right an oppressed man as Cabeljavius saith Or 3. When there is no Synods to be had then as Triglandius saith well from Beza the Christian Magistrate may provide â—it meanes of releeving the oppressed 8. This would ever be remembred that in case of the Churches erring in judgement which must be thought of as a sort of extraordinary case the godly Magistrate may do more then what ordinarily he can doe and so may the Church when the Magistrate oppresseth in judgement as great Iunius saith 9. We grant when any complaineth to the Magistrate that they are oppressed in judgement by the Church that the Church is obliged to give an account of their doings but that from common charitie to remove the scandall and that they owe to all Christians as may be evidently collected from 1 Pet. 4. 15. but this will not prove a subordination to common Christians as to Iudges nor yet to the Magistrate 2. The Magistrate when his judging is deemed scandalous is to give an account to the preachers of the Gospel who watch for his soul as King Saul gave an account to Samuel with a false Apologie I grant that he had obeyed the Commandement of the Lord but if Saul had been faultlesse in sparing â—gag and the cattell yet was he obliged to give an account to Samuel But that will not prove that King Saul was subordinate to Samuel to be judged of him because Prophets are but servants and Ministers to declare Gods will yet is it all the subordination that we require in this according to that And the people beleeved the Lord and Moses Now all the Arguments before alledged to prove that Pastors as Pastors are not subordinate in their pastorall acts to the civill Magistrate do also prove that there is no appeal from the Church in an Ecclesiasticall businesse to the civill Magistrate For 1. If two Painters contend touching any controversie in the mysterie of their Art they cannot appeal to the King as Iudge the King then should formally be a painter and which is absurd not by accident but as a King and so here if the King were the judge to whose determination we might appeale from the Church in a Church controversie sure the King as King should be a Church Officer if the Priests in controversie touching burning incense or offering strange fire to God should appeal to the decision of the King as the King sure the King in that as King should be an eminent High Priest and right of burning incense to the Lord should belong to him in as farre as the Kings lips in that controversie should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law from his mouth which is proper to the Priests Mal. 2. 7. Ezek. 22 26. and 44. 23 24. Deut. 17. 11. 2. The Church of Antioch should have
appealed to Cesar if he had been a Christian in the controversie touching circumcision he should have determined who were perverters of souls who not and should have said by his office as Emperour It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to me 3. We have not any practise or precept or promise in the Old or New Testament for any such appeal except they say all hard questions belonging to the Priests office were to come before Moses as a civill Magistrate and not as the great Prophet to whom God revealed his minde 4. If so then all Church controversies in doctrine and discipline should be ultimately resolved into the will of the Magistrate speaking according to the word and faith in most points should come by hearing a Magistrate determining against Arrius that Christ is God consubstantiall with the Father and all binding and loosing in Earth as in heaven should be from the Magistrate as the Magistrate he should forgive and retaine sins and Christ should have given the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven to the Magistrate as the Magistrate certainly we should have the doctrine of the Church of Christ and the building and edifying thereof most obscure in the New Testament in which there is not one word of such a supream and chiefe officer as the Magistrate 5. The Parliament colledge of civill judges as they are civill Magistrates should be the Church assemblies and determine all doctrines debarre the ignorant and Hereticks and Apostates from the Sacraments and totally cast them out of the Church and excommunicate them I see not but then the Parliament as the Parliament is the Church and the two Kingdomes Ioh. 18. 36. must be confounded and no difference at all made between the civill state and the Church because the Magistrate as the Magistrate is made by the adversaries the chiefe officer over the Church the Ecclesiasticall head the mixt Governour halfe civill whole Ecclesiasticall in whose power all Pastors Elders preach dispense Sacraments make Church-canons as his Ministers and Servants Christ when any brother trespasseth against a Christian brother saith Tell the Church never Tell the christian Magistrate But truly it is a great mistake in the learned Mr. Pryn to call them Anti-Monarchicall Anti-Parliamentary and Novators who deny that the Parliament hath any Nomothetick power in Church-canons Nor hath hee in any measure answered the Arguments of those Learned and godly Divines Mr. Iohn Goodwin and Mr. Hen Burton he is pleased to cite the practise of many Parliaments of England who laudably impatient of the Popes yoke have made Church-canons when the man of sin sate upon the neck of the Christian church but these numerous citations of Parliaments and Councels in time of Popery conclude nothing against us who grant when the Church is not her selfe the christian Magistrate may extraordinarily reform and take from the man of sin his usurped power but in a constituted Church the case must be otherwise and 1. Whereas he proveth Emperors and Kings to have a power to convocate Councels It hath not strength against us all our Divines teach so But how 1. an accumulative civill power so Iewel Alley Bilson Whitaker Willet White Roger he might have cited more but no privative no Ecclesiasticall power so as Synods may not lawfully conveen without the command of the civill Magistrate our Divines say many Synods and Church meetings were in the Apostolique Church without the consent and against the will of the civill Magistrate our Divines oppose the Pope who claimeth the only accumulative civill privative and Ecclesiastick power to convocate Synods and that no Synods are lawfull without the consent and mandate of the holinesse of such a Beast 2. Master Prinne saith The Magistrate hath power to direct for time and place and to limit for matter and manner the proceedings liberty and freedome of all Church Assemblies But 1. he asserteth this in the most from corrupt practises 2. He proveth Laymen should have hand as well in Synods as Clergymen the one having interest in the faith as well as the other Ans Then must all the people be members of Synods for all have alike interest of Faith but this proveth not interest of defining which is the question in dispensing Word and Sacraments they have interest of trying all things as well as Pastors but it followeth not Ergo they may dispense Word and Sacraments no lesse yea more principally then Pastors as Erastus saith the Magistrate more principally determineth Synodicall constitutions Hence this is easily answered we may appeal in Church businesse to him as to the supream judge who may punish the erring Church and Pastors but the Magistrate may in Church businesse do this For answer 1. I retort it the Magistrate in making civill Lawes that must in their moralitie be determined by the Word of God may appeal to Pastors whose lips by office should preserve knowledge Ergo the Magistrate in making civill Lawes may appeal to the Pastor which is absurd 2. If men in Church-constitutions may appeal to the Magistrate as to one who may in his person determine Synodically in Assemblies above all the Pastors 1. Because Magistrates may punish the Pastors erring and oppressing in Synods 2. Because the Magistrate and all laymen have interest in the faith as well as Pastors then may people in hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments and in all Pastorall rebukings and threatnings in believing of all Gospel promises and threatnings and fundamentall truths appeal from Pastors to Magistrates as Magistrates and Magistrates as such may determine all fundamentall truths all conscionall promises and rebukes and that is formally they may preach for he that can distinguish these hath a good engine Because Magistrates may punish hereticall preaching and superstitions and idolatrous abusing of the Sacraments by preachers and Magistrates and all Laymen have interest of Faith in Word Doctrine and Sacraments as in Discipline yea the Magistrate may punish the Priest that offered strange fire to the Lord offered bastard incense and the people had their interest of saith in sacrifices offered for their own sins but can it follow therefore the Magistrate might sacrifice and burne incense in his own person as Mr. Pryn will have him to make Church-laws in his own person Other Arguments of Mr. Pryns are light as that there were brethren and Lay-men that had hand in the Councell at Hierusalem Acts 15. Ans This is nothing for Magistrates as Magistrates but all Christians as Christians so must have hand in Synods which I grant in so far as concerneth their faith and practise that they try all things and try the Spirits whether they be of God or not but will it follow Ergo Magistrates as Magistrates are those only who govern the Church and make all Ecclesiasticall constitutions as having in them all power of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and deriving it to Bishops and Pastors at the second hand as Mr. Pryn saith in the same booke Obj.
Deu. 17. they are not to chuse a stranger but one from amongst their brethren and men fearing God and hating coveteousnes Exo. 18. 21. Deu. 17. 15 16 17 18 19 20. and 1. 16. and that a Christian Magistrate receive power to govern in the Church I deny him to be a Governour of the Church from Christian people I see no inconvenience Suppose that a Christian woman chuse a Pagan Husband she sins in her choise and as a sinful woman chuseth a Pagan who hath no other then a Pagan conscience to be the guide of her youth and her head and to love her as Christ loved his Church and to rule her according to his marital and Husband-power in some acts of her Christian conversation Yea when Christians did fight under Heathen Emperours they gave power as all souldiers do to their Commanders to those Heathen Captains to command Christians according to their Pagan consciences for other consciences it cannot be supposed Heathen have as this Author speaketh nor do I see such an inconvenience that men as men chuse a Magistrate who is a Heathen to see not the Church as the Church but men of the Church do their duty and to punish them civilly when they omit Church duties when providence compelleth Iudah Yea when God commandeth Iudah to submit to a Babylonish or Persian King who according to his Babylonish conscience is to command them to keep the oath of God to abstain from murther yea to build again the house of God and is to punish the men of Iudah if they do the contrary Here evidently the Church is to chuse Heathen Kings who according to their Heathen consciences are to judge and punish sins against both Tables but they chuse them to adde there auxiliary power to help and desend the Church not any privative or absolute power to set up what ordinances they will Nor is it supposed that men as men may give to Indian and American Magistrates power to judge by rule of Indian consciences what is blasphemy against Iesus Christ what is apostacy from the Christian saith to Iudaâ—sme and to punish it For in that fare the Indian Magistrate is uncapable of Magistracy in those acts though essentially he be a lawfull Magistrate in other acts just as Christian men and Saints by calling may make a Christian Corinthiaâ— amongst themselves their Magistrate and yet he cannot judge whether Tiâ—ius the Physiâ—ian in Corinth hath poysoned Sempronius as he hath a Christian conscience but not a medicinall conscience to speak so or the skill and art of a Physiâ—ian to know what is poyson what not yet did men as men create this Christian Magistrate to judge punish murthers and poysoning of Christians 2. Let us also turn the Tables the Author cannot deny but Ten thousand Christians and Indians half of each side may come to be one civil incorporation they create with common consent a Christian Magistrate over themselves this they do as a society of men The Indians worship their God in that society by offering their children to the Devil and this is their Indian conscience for it is not to be supposed that an Indian can worship his God with other then an Indian conscience By this Authors way Indians and Christians gave to this Christian Magistrate to judge of this Indian and bloody worship with a Christian conscience for it is supposed he can judge with no other conscience I demand whether or not this Magistrate be obliged to punish such horrid shedding of innocent blood If he be he is set over this incorporation to bear the sword of the Lord and with a Christian conscience to judge and punish Indian consciences Is not this as great an inconvenience as what he objecteth to us Besides that according to this way he must not punish the killing of the children to the Devil why this is against the will of the meek Saviour in whom the Christian Magistrate believes to persecute an Indian for his conscience as this Author thinketh Now it is no lesse an Indian conscience worship and no murther to offer an innocent child to the Indian God then it was to the Jews to offer an innocent Bullock or a Ram to Jehovah Obj. But God hath forbidden in the Law of nature to kill infants to God upon any pretence Ans In the Law of nature God hath forbidden all false worship 2. The Law of nature hath forbidden to offer any blood to God that is the Law of nature will never warrant us to offer in a whole brunt offering an innocent Beast to God created for the use of man and it should be against the Law of nature to kill Beasts for any religious use or for any use except to be food or medicine for man Except God in a positive Law had commanded whole burnt offerings and offering of Beasts to God so the Law of nature forbids Indians to kill infants but they tell you there is a positive Law of their God and in conscience they are obliged to kill their children to this God and you must convince their conscience that this is murther not right worship by reason and light of truth not with a club and force of sword which hath no influence upon the conscience 3. It followeth not that God hath subjected God Christ Heaven the Spirit to naturall men for an Indian Magistrate remaining an Indian never received power from mem as men nor from God to judge of Christian worship yea Indian Magistrates as Indians are uncapable of judging or punishing what is against Christ Heaven the Spirit and yet they are Lawfull Magistrates for their ignorance of Christ excludeth them from having any such formal power what Magistraticall power they have which they cannot put forth in acts is not to a purpose for this power which they cannot exercise shall never subject Christ Heaven the Spirit to the consciences of naturall men or Indian Magistrates this consequence therefore should have been proved not presumed as a truth 4. He saith If any Church should arise amongst those who have Indian Magistrates Christ should betrust the Indian civill power with his Church I answer This is non-consequence also for the state of heathenship in the Indian should exclude him from any such trust if a Church arise they are to be under the Indian Magistrate while God in his providence free them from under him that they may chuse a Christian Magistrate who may be a nurse-father to them 5. The Lord be trusteth his Church to the civil power as an auxiliary power not to exercise any magistraticall power over the Church and over their conscience but only for the Churches good and for their conscience These would be distinguished a governour of or over the Church 2. A Governour in the Church 3. A Governour for the Church neither Christian nor Heathen Magistrate is a Governor of the Church or over the Church An Heathen Magistrate may be a Governour in the Church giving to
humane societies but as offensive to God scandalous to the Church and destructive to the souls of those who commit such offences All the punishment Ecclesiasticall which we plead for though we borrow only the name it being unproperly so called is spiritual rebukes debarring of wicked men from the society of the Saints and the holy things of God that they pollute not such pearls Bullinger is alledged by Erastus as a favourer of this way and some private Epistles of Bullinger written to Erastus cited but nothing of the publike writings of Bullinger It is true he saith he is pleased with Erastus his Theses but 1. That he was not of Erastus his mind wholly is evinced from these Epistles 1. Bullinger strove with the Anabaptists of his time who contended for either a Church of regenerate persons or none Bullinger Diu cum Anabaptistis nostris contendimus hac de re et ostendimus veram Ecclesiam posse esse et dici Ecclesiam quae excommunicatione hâc careat 2. He saith he himself D. Wolphius Lavater Hallerus Zwinglius Gualther never condemned the Church of Geneva Ergo they never condemned Presbyterial Government 3. He saith it will be for the edification of the Churches of the Palatine that this excommunication be Now we know divers there ascribed to the Magistrate plus aequo and said that the tythes belonged jure divino to the Magistrate The truth is these Divines were too obnoxious to the lust of Christian Magistrates Calvin Farel complain much of the Magistrates usurpation in this 4. They thought hard to exulcerate the minds of Princes to excommunicate the Magistrate and longè magis abalienatos reddere inferiores gradus conscendere superiores vero intactos reddere But was it not an abuse to excommunicate the poor people and spare the Magistrate 3. Bullinger would not have the question of excommunication to come in publike why cum hoc tempore aliâs satis afflicta sit Ecclesia 4. He seems to incline that none should be debarred from the Lords Table that acknowledgeth their sins coena sit libera omnibus peccata sua agnoscentibus et veniam a Christo petentibus we say Amen so they be truly penitent to the Church and not such as Paul speak of 2 Tim. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. to whom confession of sins before the Church is a manifest form of godlinesse 5. Bullinger and Gualther writ to the Prince Elector to punish scandalous persons But with all quanquam arbitramur illust Principem admonitionem nostram sibi soli reservaturum qua duntaxat dissidia manefesta in Ecclesia praevenire voluimus Hence this tecum sentimus of Bullinger written to Erastus was 1. His private opinion that he desired not to be known to the Churches therefore Erastus wronged Bullinger who left his secret letters to be printed 2. Many learned men in these Churches beside Anabaptists and the Palatinate Catechisme were against Erastus 6. He saith Zwinglius was the chief man to have excommunication brought in inductam cuperet 7. He desired Beza not to answer Erastus for peaces cause and the same he wrote to Erastus A learned and holy preacher to the Prince Elector wrote thus to Bullinger Queror fr. m. d. dilecte quod approbaris Theseis D. Erasti contra disciplinam Ecclesiasticam scriptas quae non tantum impiae sunt sed viam sternunt ad Atheismum hortor et obsecro ut publicè testeris te novas illas Theseis improbare Quod nisi seceris futurum est ut videaris dissentire non tantum a doctâ illa vetustate sed etiam a Zwinglio et Oecolampadio aliisque adeoque et cum teipsâ— pugnare Bullinger in 1 Cor. 5. Excommunicatio non est exercenda ut Anabaptistae volunt a toto Ecclesiae coetu sed a dilectis ad hoc hominibus Excommunicatio apud veteres est exclusio a communione Sacramentorum Excommunicatio est supplicium temporale disciplina externa ad medendam instituta Bullinger in Mat. 18. esse Ethnicum et publicanum significat esse et haberi inter facinorosos quibus nihil neque officij neque sinceri committas Idem Hortor ut salutare hoc pharmacum excommunicationis e caetu Sanctorum pontificis avaritâ—a eliminatum reducatur Idem in Mat. 18. finis consilij domini est in negotio disciplinae ut corrigantur scelerati in Ecclesia et auferantur scandala Bullinger in 2 Thes 3. hic habemus abstensionem sen exclusionem qua a tribuum societate et publicorum pascisorum usu-fructu excludimus â—onâ—â—maces et omnes admonitiones contemnentes aliter etiam locus potest interpretari These be contradictory to Erastus his expositions and way which maketh excommunication nothing and putteth all Church-discipline on the point of the Magistrates sword I cannot say but that saying did too little prevail with Bullinger Amicus Socrates Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas for Erastus was his intimate and too dear friend etiam erâ—ores amicorum et nâ—â—i sunt nobis pergrati Bullinger in Mat. 18. in illa Dic Ecclesiae Excommunicatio est disciplina â—xterna sanctorum in Ecclesia conversantium quâ ex communione abiiâ—iuntur sanctorum aut commodè alioqui corriguntur coercentâ—â—ve qui scandalizant Ecclesiam hae particulares Ecclesiae deligunt sibi quoque veluti Senatum Collegiumve optimorum virorum qui juxta Canonem sacrism disciplinam hanc exerceant What is this but a Presbytery Ceterum qualis fuerit Ethnicorum et publicanorum reputatio facile est colligerâ— ex Evangelio et Paulo ad Ephe. 2. Certe alieni sunt a gratia nihil Communionis haebentes cum sorte sanctorum Bullinger Ser. 5. decad 10. pag. 384. Sicut autem dominus privatim voluit admoneri et corripi praevaricantes Ecclesiae Ministres ita ejusdem admonitions et correctionis bonum extendit ad universam Ecclesiam Ergo hâ—buit vetus Ecclesia sanctum Presbyterorum senatum qui delinquentes in Ecclesia diligenter admonebat corripiebat graviter adde et consortio excludebat Ecclesiastico si nihil emendationis expectari posse videretur 1 Cor. 5. decrevi ut is qui hot seelus patravir c. Musculus in locis Commun de Ministris verbi pag. 204. disciplina Ecclesiastica includiâ— morum correctionem tum privatorum tum publicorum deinde et judicia Ecclesiastica hisce quoque de rebus non constituet Minister suopte arbitratu sed erit ad institutionem earum director et adâ—ibâ—bit suffragia et consensum suae plebis ne quid invitae Ecclesiae imponatur denique curabit ut plebs ipsa viros graves timentes Dei ac boni Testiomnij deligat quorum cur â— et vigilantiâ Ecclesiae disciplina administretur et si quid gravioris momenti accidat ad Ecclesiam ipsam referatur I grant it was the error of that worthy instrument of Reformation that he referreth all to the Christian Magistrate and so he saith haec omnia pertinenâ— ad
primatam Ecclesia Anglicanae and regeâ— sâ—cro olcâ— uncti capaces sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis Rex propriâ— autorite creat Episcopus See Cald. â—u altar Dam. p. 14 15 16. seq That Magistrates are more hot against punishing of sin by the Church then against sinfull omissions which argueth that they are unpatient of Christs yoak rather then that they desire to vindicate the liberty of the subject in this point Not any power or office subject to any but to God immediately subjection is properly of persons A Magistrate and a Christian different Two things in a Christian Magistrate jus authoritie aptitudo habilitie Pareâ—â— Com. in Rom. 13. dub Iac. Triglandius de potest civ Ecclesiastica c. 10. 207 208. Vbi nam injuâ—xit Christus Magistratui Christiano ut oves Christi quae â—ales Regat Christianity maketh no new power of or to Magistrates Jac. Trig. land diâ—â—er Theo. de potest civ c. 8. p. 174. A fourfold consideration of the exercise of Ministerial power most necessary upon which the former Distinctions followeth ten very considerable Assertions 1. Assert The Magistrate as the Magistrate commandeth the exercise of Ministeriall power but not the spirituall and sincere manner of the exercise Magistrates as godly men not as Magistrates command sincerity and zeal in the manner of the exercise of ministeriall power Augustin contr literas petilian l. 2. c. 92. contr Cresconi l. 8. c. 5. reges serviunt Dâ—o in quantum sunt homines in quantum sunt reges Exo. 18. 21 Deu. 1. 16. 17. Dâ—u 17. 19 20. A two fold good in a Christian Magistrate essentiall accidentall Asser 3. The Magistrate as such commandeth only in order to temporary reward and punisheth and layeth no commands on the constience Nota. Nota. Magistrates as Magistrates forbid not sin as sin under the paine of eternall wrath Two sorts of subordinations Civill Ecclesiastick Ministers not the Ambassadors of an earthly King but of the King of Kings Church Officers as such not subordinate to the Magistrate See the Arminian Remonstrance in Apol. c. 25. fol. 299 300. What power Erastiaus give to Magistrates in Church matters The minde of Arminians touching the Magistrates power in Church matters Remonstrant Arminian c. 25. p. 304 â—â—c Trig. de potest 〈…〉 Eccelesiastica dissâ—â—tatio Thâ—â—l p. 123 Tâ—mâ—lorum usus sâ—ipeâ—â—iorum publâ—â—orum â—â—â— in re nihil potest ille enimextrinsâ—â—us accedit ad res Ecclesiasticas eorumque naturam atque indolem nihil immutat A threefold consideration of the magistrate in relation to the Church Course of conformity part 3. pag. 146. Reciprocation of subordinaâ—â—â—ns between Church and Magistrate Aâ—t Walens p. 2. de quatenus pastor subjiciatur magist pag. 15 16. Iac. Trig. disser Thel de potest civ Ecclesi c. 5. pag. 124. profess Leyden in Syno purioris Theol. dis de disc Ecclesi de magistrati Zipperus de pâ—litâ—a Ecclesiast l. 3. c. 13. Calvinus Insti l. 4. c. 11. Pet. Cabel Iavins in apolâ—gâ—tico Rescript pro libert Ecelesi c. 6. p. 79. M. Cot. in a Model of Church and civill power P. Matyr loc Communi l. 4. c. 13. D. Pareus in prefat ad hâ—seam Epist ad langravi August confess Artic. de potâ—st Ecclesi Helv. confess Anno 1566. Art 18. Suevica confess Art 13. Saxonica Art 12. Anglic. fol. 132. Scotic confess The Ministers as Ministers neither Magistrates nor subjects The Magistrate as such neither manageth his office under Christ as mediator nor under Satan but under God as creator A Prince as a gifted Christian may preach and spread the Gospell to a land where the Gospell hath not bin heard before but not as a Magistrate Ità videlius Ep. Const quest 11. Vtenbogard cont Pontific primat p. 71 72 73 Anto. Wal. p. 2. p. 30 31. Cabcl Iavius apol disser de l. Eccles c. 6. p. 82. Iac. Trig. Des Thho The King and the Priest kept the book of the Law but in a farre different way Bloody Tenent Cap. 82. page 119. C. 65. â—a 123. C. 85. pa. 124. The Pastors and the Iudges do reciprocally judge and censure one another God hath not given a power to the magistrate and Church and to judge contrary wayes justly and unjustly in one and the same cause Bloody Te. c. 84. p. â—22 Bellarmine de laicis c. 17. c. 18. Slatius iâ— aperta declaratione p. 53. Magistratus non valet sub penaâ—terne condemnation is gladio uti aut dominatum petere quisquus id facit Christianus non est Welsing lib. de officiâ— homi Christiani p. 1. Sim. Epis dis 13. c. 18. 19. Divers opinions of the Magistrates power in causes Eccleâ—iasticall It is one thing to complain to the Magistrate another thing to appeal What an appeal is Refuge to the Magistrate is not an appeal A twofold appeal De Lib. Eceles c. 9. p. 134 135. Iac. Trig. de civili Ecclesiastic potest â— 20. p. 420. 421. Mr. Pryn his Truth Triumphing sect 2. and 3. p. 7 8 c. 16. Sect. 13 14 15 16. Prinne Truth Triump p. 31. The Magistrates punishing or his interest of faith proveth him not be a judge in Synods Truth triumphing sect 2. 31 32. Page 31. Of Pauls appeal to Cesar that it proveth not that in Ecclesiasticall controversies we may appeal to Heathen or Christian Magistrates as to Iudges of matters Ecclesiastick from the Church Paul appealed from an inferiour civill judge to a superiour civill and heathen judge in a matter of his life not in a matter of Religion What power a conquerour hath to set up a religion in a conquered nation Videlius de Episcopat Constant p. 77. Vtenbogard p. 33. Camero prelâ—ct in Mat. 16. v. 18. 19. Tu es pâ—trus p. 17. Due right of Presbyteries p. 435 436. 437 438. c. Camero 16 17. 18. There were no appeals made to the godly Emperors of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To lay bands on the conscience of the Prince to tye him to blind obedience Popish not our Doctrine Platina in Bonifac. 3. Baronius an 602. n. 18. Baronius an 606. n. 3. Baroni an 1085. Onuphorius an 1527. 1540. Mr. Prinne Truth triumphing Remonstr in apolog p. 299. esse papatus corculum esse id ipsum in quo â—iâ—a est fâ—rma papatus five papalis hierar â—biâ—s Remonstr in apolog So Stapleton Bellarmine and other Papists argue The Magistrate as a Magistrate cannot forbid sin as sin The Magistrate as the Magistrate promoteth Christs mediatory Kingdom materially not directly and formally The Magistrate as such not the Vicar of the Mediator Christ The adversaries in the doctrine of the Magistrate Popish not we at all Andreas Rivetus Iesuit Vapul in Castigati Notarum in Epist ad Balsacum Edit 1644. c. â—1 page 40. Christus neque Reges neque principes instituit in Ecclesia sed neque successores habet neque vicarios quibus competat jus dominatus ministros tantum instituit nomine principis unius legatione