in which he seems to give something to the magistrate but in truth gives nothing however he is sure to raise a dust of distinctions that neither satisfy one nor the other Pag. 259. he alledgeth the 25. article of the confession of the church of Scotland which saith that to Kings Princes rulers and magistrates chiefly and most principally the conservation and the purgation of religion pertaineth so that not only they are appointed for civil policy but also for maintenance of the true religion and for suppressing idolatry and all superstition what soever He who never had heard of a double jurisdiction ecclesiasticall and civil or of a power of excommunicating deposing making lawes and determining so authoritatively about matters of faith and discipline that the magistrate is not to revise their judgements or receive complaints from church-judicatories he who never I say had heard of these positions would never deduct them by any consequence out of the words of the confession of Scotland quoted by Mr. Gillespie for quite contrary they unite all power into one make the magistrate sole governour of churches nationall provinciall and consistoriall and sole judge of heresies canous decrees and church-censures and besides overturn all Mr. Gillespies ground upon which he thinks to have laid very fast the fabrick of his ecclesiasticall jurisdiction independent from the magistrate and lastly reinvest the magistrate with the right and power which Mr. Gillespie hath taken from him when every where he denieth these three things 1. that the magistrate as magistrate intends the glory of Jesus Christ no otherwise then a sea-man or a picture-drawer as such see p. 187. 2. that he is to rule in the name of Christ p. 235. 3. that a magistrate as such is subservient to Christ as mediatour But let us examine by parts the force of the words of the confession of Scotland and how they agree with Mr. Gillespies usuall determinations 1. That article of the confession ascribeth to the magistrate at least an equall jurisdiction over ecclesiasticall persons and things which he hath over civil for they say he is appointed not only for civil policy but also for maintenance of the true religion so that equally he is charged by God to extirpate heresies reform the church and to purge the Commonwealth from seditions abuses crimes c. 2. Yea the article puts a great deal more stresse of duty upon the magistrate to govern the church and maintain and reform the true religion then to rule the Commonwealth besides making the end and ayme of magistrates and magistracy not so much peace and quietnesse as honesty and godlinesse and not so much the glory of his dominions as that of Jesus Christ 3. But how can it be that as the article saith the magistrate should be appointed by God chiefly and principally for maintaining the true religion for purging it from heresies schisme idolatry c. and yet the while he should not rule in the name of Christ nor should be subservient to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as mediatour as Mr. Gâ—llespie speaketh Can the Lord Iesus appoint officers whose office and place is chiefly and principally to promote the interest of Iesus Christ and yet those officers shall not intend that which chiefly they are to intend and are appointed for namely the glory of Iesus Christ and the advancement of his Kingdom How can the article stand with what he saith p. 187. that magistrates as such do not intend the glory of Iesus Christ otherwise then a sea-man a printer a merchant So that by what he saith the magistrates act towards the promoting and advancing Christs Kingdom hath no more congruity then the act of a physitian building a house which he doth not build as a physitian but as an architect and builder Thus Mr. Gillespie maketh not a magistrate or magistracy but his Christian profession subservient to the interest of Iesus Christ 4. But how can the magistrates principall duty be to purge religion extirpate idolatry and heresy with a power only depending on God except his judgement in discerning what is true religion and what idolatry be as absolute and independent on any judicatory as his power and duty is It God hath placed in the same person or persons both a duty and a power to reforme and purge religion sure he hath not denyed him the main condition required to the discharge of that duty and the exercise of that power and that condition is the duty of a judge whose judgement of a law or sentence whether right or wrong goeth alwayes along with his judicall power so that the magistrate must judge with a judgement of discretion and approbation of the truth the goodnesse equity of any matter propounded to 〈◊〉 by presbyteries and synods before it be law 〈◊〉 decree or judiciall sentence obliging externally men to obedience This language of the article of the confession of Scotland falls sometimes from Mr. Gillespies pen as pag. 187. It lyes upon the magistrate to advance that high and eminent vocation of his that Christ may be glorified as King of the church and p. 191. he saith magistrates are appointed not only for civil policy but for the conservation and purgation of religion But Mr. Gillespie may be well excused if he let fall such passages from his pen pulling down with one hand what he hath set up with the other for Beza a great advocate of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and by whom it hath taken a great rise will sometimes thus forget himself namely in an epistle of his it is the 83. to a namelesse friend beating down at one blow his ecclesiasticall jurisdiction independent from the magistrate The words are Docet nos igitur Dei verbum c. The word of God teacheth us that it is the duty of magistrates to be even the chief guardians of ecclesiasticall order Therefore their charge is to look and provide that a presbytery rightly constituted according to the word of God do act all things lawfully and when need is to interpose their authority that things well judged and constituted be performed that the ring leaders of disorders be restrained and punished according to their deserts So likewise it is the office of the presbyterie to implore the ayd of the magistrate when needfull and obey him when he rightly admonisheth Certain it is the magistrate is made here sole judge to pronounce when the presbyterie is well constituted and its judgements are right and to interpose his authority as he seeth cause And at the end of the epistle officium magistratus vel hoc praecipuum est ut qui Domino ministrant legitime vocentur rite officio suo fungantur It is even the chief duty of the magistrate that those that minister to the Lord be lawfully called and perform well their office Thus the magistrate is made judge of the lawfullnesse of the call and when ministers discharge their places aright Sure he that hath the power to judge
him Here one may see as the law of God and the law of the King may stand together so the power of the magistrate may very well consist with the power right and liberty of a private church And the like he doth by many passages of Scripture which he urgeth namely Isa 49. v. 23. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers c. and Esa 60. 10. Revel 21. v. 24. the Kings of the earth shall bring their honour to the church and Rom. 13. 4. and 1 Pet. 2. 13. He addes since the Scripture speaks thus generally for thy good for the punishment of evil-doers and the praise of them that do well we must not distinguish where the Scripture doth not Now let us go to New-England where none will deny but a power and right of churches is maintained sutably to the sense of the dissenting brethren in old England and yet they ascribe no lesse to the magistrate in matters of religion then Mr. Burroughs Witnesse the result of a synod at Cambridge in new England published an 1646. They say magistrates must and may command matters of religion that are commanded in the Word and forbid things therein forbidden by the Word meaning the whole Word both in the new and old Testament In short they hold for substance what I said before of the two kinds of acts performed in every private church one looking immediately at the externall act of the body and the duties and sins which appear in the carriage of the outward man and this they say the magistrate looketh at and commandeth or forbiddeth in church and out of church see pag. 15. and therefore they say pag. 40. every church considered as a civil society needeth a coercive power They say further that this power is needfull in churches to curb the obstinate and restrain the spreading of errours Pag. 49. they invalid the example of Uzziah often alledged by the Romanists and the presbyterians though Mr. Gillespie as I remember never maketh use of it in his great book and say that this act of Azariah thrusting out Uzziah was an act of coercion and so of magistracy and a civil act which priests and Levites were allowed to do and which they made subservient to that command of God that none should burn incense but the sons of Aaron For I believe any officer under the soveraign magistrate might do the like in case this later should go about to violate a command of such a high nature for being an under-magistrate and invested with power of coercion he obeyeth the greater master and maketh use of his power to hinder a notable breach of Gods expresse command Having thus made good that there is a fair correspondency and concurrence of the right and power of private churches with the magistrates power over them I do not see but my principles and those of the dissenting brethren are very agreeable consonant in the main It may be a few of them will call that power in every particular church ecclesiasticall which I call a power of magistracy and they will call excommunication an act of the ecclesiasticall power which I conceive to be rather an effect of the power of magistracy settled in every particular church But the difference is not great since we both make that church-power call it what you will a power of jurisdiction and coercion which must needs be subordinace to the power of the magistrate since both are of the same kind and upon that account excommunication is a law of the power of coercion so of magistracy In short whereas some of them will say of all church-censures that they are the product of a positive divine power I say they are the result of a naturall civil power subservient to the divine power in the exercise of the first kind of acts of church-members as such sure Mr. Burroughs and the result of the synod in New-England come very near if not altogether to my sense For Mr. Burroughs pag. 27. maketh but two powers residing in a private church one of admonishing perswading desiring seeking to convince the other a power restraining This latter power I call a power of magistracy because by the first power men are not outwardly restrained nor rought to outward conformity and accordingly excommunication must needs be a product of that restraining power So that the difference is not at all reall but nominall I find in Musculus in his common-places concerning magistrates the same power of magistracy in churches The passage hath been alledged above there he saith that that power exercised in churches is notecclesiasticall but the power of the magistrate CHAPTER XXI That a church made up of many particular churches under one presbytery invested with a judiciall power over them is not of the institution of Christ. VVE are brought insensibly to know the nature of a Christian church instituted by Christ which as I said is a particular visible one meeting in one place to celebrate the same ordinances whereof mention is made 1 Cor. 11. v. 18. and chap. 14. v. 23. and Act. 13. v. 42. and 44. In this church the Lord Jesus Christ hath properly instituted the ministry for Christ hath not instituted a catholick visible church much lesse a nationall church under one presbytery but this appellation of church is like the word man which denotes a nature common to many singulars and yet is properly said of John or Peter For as many fountains are not a fountain and many schools are not a school and many families are not a family so many private churches are not properly a church We shall find below Amyraldus saying most truly and very pertinently to our argument that the appellation of church doth not properly belong either to the catholick visible church or to a nationall church such as are the English French Helvetian churches which are rather a knot or collection of churches then a church That such a church made up of many private churches under one presbytery is not of the institution of Christ nor ex necessitate praecepti but of the free pleasure of each private church who without any violation of the command of Christ may either remain single or aggregate it self to other churches under such a presbytery may be proved by severall arguments 1. I begin with the testimony of the Rev. Assembly in their humble advice who lay no greater stresse of necessity upon it then that it is lawfull and agreeable to the word of God that such a thing be 2. If the Lord Jesus Christ had instituted such a presbyterian church it were fit it should be told us what is a competent number of churches requisite to be under a presbytery whether only three or four or more it may be two thousand If so many why may not a hundred thousand churches be under one presbytery If so many why not all private orthodox churches that are dispersed through the world If a presbytery may be over all the catholick
churches would there be even 33. for so many were overcome but should all these 33. Kings be subdued these 33. Churches would cease to be independent on each other and in stead of 33. churches depending each on their magistrate one nationall church should be moulded of the same extent of power as the magistrate that ruleth over them CHAPTER XXII That the greatest opposers of the dissenting brethren namely Salmasius Amyraldus and others have laid down the same grounds for the right and power of particular churches and so confuted rather their own fancies then invalidated the tenets of the brethren The question whether Rome be a true church briefly resolved That Amesius and Iohn Mestrezat late minister of Paris in their writings have held the power of private churches to be independent from any church-judicatory THe spirits of men are now a little more calm and not so eager either at home or abroad and the quarrell not so fierce with the independents as it bath been these 15. years I having my self been a poor instrument to disabuse some of my country-men who partly by their misunderstanding paitly by the false reports and ill will of the common enemy to all goodness good men were possessed of very harsh opinions and conceits of them passed a strange censure upon them as enemies to all order and discipline and men of dangerous and pernicious tenets to all humane societies The very children amongst them did question whether they were shaped like other men Amyraldus made a great book of Invectives against them and turned them into Sodomites franticks and enemies of all order and discipline Salmasiâ—s and Maiesius were no lesse bitter against them A nationall synod net at Charenton where Amyraldus had a standing but no vote condemned them But as this synod condemned them as the councill of Trent did the Lutherans before they heard them so did all these authouâ—s I have named fall upon them without mercy before they had any particular knowledge of them or any certain information of their supposed pernicious manners Yet for all that those very men that wrote so much against them as they refuted rather their own fancies then any thing those they call independents believed so they did handle this matter of the nature and power of the church and that of the magistrate over it much to the advantage of those that they made as black as they could namely Amyraldus in declaring both his own sense and that of the ancient church next to the Apostles hath laid the same ground-work for the parity and independency of churches as the reverend brethren dissenting from the assembly of Divines have done He alledgeth Vignier a French authour writing above 70. years agone highly valued as the truest historiographer that ever put pen to paper by the most learned and pious Prelat Dr. Usher in his ecclesiasticall history relating the opinion of Irenaeus Eusebius and Nicephorus concerning the state of the government of the church soon after the Apostles The form of the government in this age was almost democraticall for every church had equall power to teach the word of God to administer the sacraments to absolve and excommunicate hereticks and those that led a d'ssolute life to elect to call and to ordain ministers to depose them when occasion required to erect schools to call synods to ask the opinion of others upon doubts and controver sies I find the centuriators of Magdeburg cent â— cap 7. to have these or equivalent words with little difference but that they wrote in Latin and Vignier in French Here then we may see our brethrens sense 1. that every particular church is independent free to govern it self and to exercise all church acts not rejecting a consociation with other churches but such as equals have among themselves 2. for the power of synods they acknowledge none nor judiciall authority only a liberty to admonish advise and counsell In the 8. chapter he hath a long passage whereof the drift is 1. that particular churches are no lesse free asunder then provinces and towns before they join in a confederation 2. that all aggregation and consociation is as free for churches as for free towns or cities 3. that a particular church for example that of Saumur considered as not united by any voluntary confederacy to other churches oweth the same duty of respect to the orders and constitutions of the churches of Leyden Heydelberg and Basil as to to those of Paris or Rouen 4. that the power of synods over churches is of the same humane and civil right with the power of a judiciall senatover cities and towns Pag. 144. he hath these words The Church and the Commonwealth have some things that seem common and they may be almost alâ—ke managed both by ecclesiast call assemblâ—es and by the powâ—r of the magistrate How doth this agree with what we have heard him say that it were an horrible confusion for the church and state to be governed by the same men Pag. 198. and 199. he speaketh of the authority of synods in the language of our brethren It is true that the meer authority of councils ought not to move us to receive a point of religion the knowledge of the truth of the thing ought to be the chief motive and ground But we have him very expresly teaching his scholars and auditors at Saumur that the appellation of a true visible church doth properly belong to a particular church I shall cite his words Disp de ecclesiae nomine definitione thes 28. in English I know that a communion and as it were a confederation of many the like societies which are associated either by the same use of tongue or the same form of Commonwealth or else by the same government and discipline is called a particular church thus we speak of the French English and German churches as of particular churches to distinguish them from that universall society of Christians which comprehends all nations that bear the name of Christians but as we said before the word church is not proper to the society of all Christians as it is to the particular assemblies of Christians so that consequently we say that the word church is not to be said in the like manner of a consociation of many particular churches Let then that communion which is between the churches of France be said to be a church and that the church is a confederation of many churches for if taken according to the use of the holy Scripture St. Paul calleth the severall particular churches which were in Achaia not by the name of the church of Achaia or the Achaian church but of the churches of Achaia A passage very considerable which force of turth hath drawn from the mouth of the greatest enemy to the brethren for their greatest advocate could not say more in justification of what they have alwayes urged about the nature of the church but could never be heard till of late viz.
naturall power right liberty and prudence in ordering all kinds of affairs societies and families are no otherwise distinct in kind or species then a yard that measured cloth differs from that which measured searge as a yard is alike appliable to silk and thred and the same hammer will knock in an iron naile and a wooden pin so the same power and prudence governeth the church and a colledge It is also observable that a man being at once a member of a family hall city Parliament church doth not act alwaies according to the quality of his relation function and place publick or private not acting as a physitian father or husband but as a judge and not as a church-member but as a free member of a society Thus a member of a colledge of physitians joyneth in consultation with his brethren in a case of physick as a physitian but in making lawes regulating the practise of physick and the apothecaries entrenching upon the physitians he doth not act as a physitian but as a judge and as a person invested with judiciall power from the state The same physitian in a Parliament upon the matter and question of physick and of physitians to be regulated may speak pertinently of his art as a physitian but doth not vote give his consent to the making of a law about physick as a physitian but as a judge of the land Likewise to be sure by what right pastors and people act in the church the acts and actions of a pastor or church-member are to be considered either as acts of pastors and of church-members or as they are acts of rulers and members of a society The act of a pastor as pastor is to discharge all ministeriall function commanded in the revealed word and not declared by any dictate of nature In those acts I see no right of jurisdiction but over the inward man when by the power of the word the sinner is brought to the obedience of the crosse of Christ The acts of church-members as such are either in relation to the pastor or of one member to another In relation to the pastor the acts are to submit to the minister ruling them and dispensing unto them the word They may have that liberty to try his doctrine and to do as they of Beroea who searched the Scriptures to know whether it was so as St. Paul preached unto them this is also an act of every faithfull member of the church not to assent to any doctrine because it hath been assented unto by the major part of suffrages but in things that concern order and discipline to yield to the constitutions agreed on by the major part of the assembly so that by them the bond of charity and the truth of the doctrine be not violated and perverted The acts of church-members relating one to another are to bear one anothers burthens to forgive and edifie one another to preferre another before himself The acts of pastors and church-members as they are endowed with a power common to all other societies are 1. to do all things orderly 2. to make a discipline sutable to time and place since there is not in the Scripture a positive precept concerning the same 3. to oblige every member to the lawes of the discipline voted by the major part of the members 4. to admit and expell the members which by the major part are thought fit so to be Many other acts are performed by the same members not as church-members as to appeal to a superiour tribunall as magistracy or synod in case of wrong sustained for they do not oppose a just defence to wrong by any other right then a member of any society should do Thus an assembly of Christians meeting in a church way being persecuted or assaulted in their temple by rude and wicked men doth not oppose a just defence by weapons or otherwise as church-members but as men invested with naturall power against an unjust violence In short ministers and people have many actâ—ngs within the sphear of Christian duties which are not proper to them as Christians and members of churches being like in that to a physitian who doth not build as a physitian or to a counsellor of State carrying a letter to a friend who acts then the part of a letter-bearer thus a father hath a power over his son by a naturall paternall right but he doth instruct him in a Gospell way by a paternall Christian right and duty grounded upon a positive precept of the Scripture thus Queen Mary of England established a religion by a naturall right power and duty annexed to all soveraignty to order sacred things with a soveraign authority but Queen Elizabeth did overthrow the false worship and did set up Protestant religion not only by the same right that Queen Mary had but also by a positive right as principall church-member as Ezechiah Iosiah c. appointed by God to be heads and nursing fathers and mothers of the churches The same things lawes and constitutions that are of divine right are also of humane right and likewise the things that are of humane right in a good sense may be said to be of divine right Things are said to be of divine or humane right either because the matter of right is concerning Gods worship or humane policie or because God or man is the author of them Thus the lawes of the Iewes regulating their Commonwealth are said both to be of divine and humane right divine because God is the authour of them humane because they order all affairs about mine and thine right and wrong and betwixt man and man Likewise many things have been instituted with great wisedome by magistrates and councils which may well be said to be both of divine and humane right Divine because they further the purity of worship and power of godlinesse humane because they were instituted by men and may suffer alteration and reformation So things that are every way of divine right both for the matter and institution as the eating of the passeover and the observation of the Sabbath may be said to be of humane right because commanded and enjoyned by humane authority The very calling of synods which they say is of divine institution both for their institution which is Apostolick and for the matter that is handled in them none but a papist did yet deny to be the Emperours and magistrates right Thus fasting prayer publick humiliation though duties to be performed by divine right and precept are also of humane right as commanded and ordered by the magistrate in a publick way Thus it was the good Kings of Iuda's right and none can blame them for it to command fasting and prayers Lastly things that are every way of humane right and made by man and have for their object the regulating of humane affairs as are the lawes concerning conduit-pipes buildings forests chases c. may conveniently be said to be of divine right because by divine right they
the magistrate is not head of the church more then of other societies for as the callings of a physitian merchant smith sea-man so of a Christian as Christian and church-member are not subordinate to magistracy but only under the notion of and as they are members of families societies corporations and commonwealths in all which magistracy is virtually and eminently resident in regard that no society of men can be imagined to be governed either without a power delegate from the magistrate or without assuming magistracy within it self In that sense the magistrate may be said for these three or four reasons to be head of a visible nationall church 1. Because the matter manner and extent of the power exercised by that church being wholly the same with that of the magistrate it is needlesse to make of one power two and therefore the magistrate being the supreme governour in the managing of that power exercised alike in all kinds of societies within his dominion he may very properly be the supreme governour as well of churches as of all other societies 2. The magistrate may be said to be head of the visible church because there is no man of what place function calling dignity so ever he be that in an externall visible way can so much promote the interest of Jesus Christ and the building up of his Kingdom as the supreme magistrate not so much considered as Christian but as magistrate and by vertue of his magistracy None doth doubt but that one single woman namely Queen Elizabeth being a magistrate did contribute more for establishing and spreading the Gospell of Christ in England then all the godly ministers put together in the dayes of Queen Mary Let but one single magistrate countenance religion this will avail more then thousands of Greenhams or Bradfords under a magistrate of a contrary religion Sure where God hath given more ability and power to do good he also hath placed there more right duty to promote that good I think there was more stresse of duty laid upon Queen Elizabeth to advance Christs Kingdom in England then on 100. Bradfords Latimers and Ridleys in Queen Maries dayes A 3. ground may be added why the sovereign magistrate may be called the head of the church and which is much pressed by Reynolds Martyr Musculus Bullingerus Gualterus Zanchius Pareus is because all the decisions of ministers about matters of faith or discipline are but mere counsels advices and directions not binding externally that is actively or passively any church society or corporation except they receive a sanction from the magistrate and besides that these sanctions are not to be made by him caeco judicio with a blind judgement standing to their determination without examination and doing as much as those of Beroea who ere they believed St. Paul searched the Scriptures to know whether it was so as he preached As no obedience is to be rendred by any person society or corporation without they duly weigh in their judgement of discretion whether the command be just or no so a command is not to be made by the person whose duty and part it is to command untill he first understandeth and apprehendeth by his judgement of discretion the thing to be a good and a fitting rule of obedience So that since presbyteries and â—ynods cannot enforce obligation of obedience to their declarations and decisions without the injunction and command of the magistrate since also he is not to enjoin or command any thing repugnant to his own judgement it doth consequently follow that good reason it is that he who last is to judge and command any thing propounded and debated in whatever assembly of men should be stiled the sovereign judge head ruler and governour of those things that are solely in his own power Fourthly he may be said to be head of the church because of three main duties which are annexed to his office of magistracy which comprehend what is requisite for life godlinesse and happinesse The 1. is provisio mediorum conducentium ad finem optimum provision of the means conducing to the best end 2. remotio impedientium the removing of hinderances 3. actualis directio in illum finem an actuall direction ordering things to that end These 3. conditions Javellus a Romish Bishop layes down to assert the soveraign power of the magistrate in judging providing ordering and removing in order to obtaining the best end which he saith is the main felicity of man Lastly he may be well called head of the church that receiveth appeals from all church-judicatories and disannuls or ratifies their judgements and sentences But Mr. Rutherfurd denieth those acts to be appeals being not in eadem serie from a lower ecclesiasticall court to a superiour ecclesiasticall court and saith that from an ecclesiasticall court to a civil as to the magistrate there is no appeal but a removall by a declinator a complaint a refuge But we having proved that synods presbyteries c. have no jurisdiction but what they have from the magistrate therefore all appeals from a church-judicatorie to the magistrate are but from an inseriour court of the magistrate to a superiour of the same magistrate Rivet on the decalogue had not learned such squibs of distinctions betwixt appeals and refuges complaints and declinators for by any means he would have men to appeal to the magistrate from church-sentences Ministers as ministers are the subjects of the soveraign magistrate and why may it not be lawfull for subjects to appeal from the judgements of subjects to the supreme magistrate and why may it not be lawfull to the supreme magistrate to review the judgements of his subjects to ratifie them if they be good and abolish them if they be bad For call those removals what you will so that the thing be still the same for he that from an unjust sentence of a church-judicatorie hath his recourse to the magistrate both declines the sentence of that court appeals to a higher court and makes his complaint to him that can redresse him help him and disannull the first sentence I confesse if a man be condemned in England he may have his refuge to some neighbour Prince but this Prince can but protect him from the execution of the sentence against him but cannot disannull the sentence against him nor restore him in statu quo prius Such are the examples of Chrysostomus Flavianus and Athanasius which are to no purpose for they repaired to the Bishop of Rome desiring indeed to be judged by him but they did not look upon him as their superiour that could relieve them and quash the sentence against them they repaired to him only as to a mediatour and intercessour Authorities should now make good what I have proved to be consonant to reason such as might be brought out of the best reformers as Martyr Reynolds Pareus Chamier who make no other supreme visible governour of the church then the soveraign magistrate but I will
Christian religion his aime is and ought to be not so much peace and quietnesse as godlinesse and honesty Must a magistrate hide his power which is his talent in a napkin were not Adam Abraham Isaac and Jacob by their paternall magistraticall power tyed to promote Gods true worship It is very strange doctrine when he saith p. 189. that the end of an ecclesiasticall sentence as delivering to Satan is that men may learn not to blaspheme but the end of the magistrate in punishing blasphemers is only that justice may be done according to law and that peace and good order may be maintained A rank papist could hardly speak more crudely Ought not this to be the end of the magistrate in punishing transgressours if it be not by death that they may change their lives and be better then they were Were not reformation of life the end for which a blasphemer is punished but only peace and quietnesse the magistrate might as well let him go unpunished if he can but obtain his end which as Mr. Gillespie saith is peace and quietnesse which hath been often obtained when no blasphemers were punished It is observed that in Augustus time there was for 12. years through all the Roman Empire peace and quietnesse though the life of all his subjects were a perpetuall blasphemy against God But I pray how can Christs church be ruled by magistracy except it be in the name of Christ promote the interest of Jesus Christ and ayme at the glory of Jesus Christ When he saith that the magiâ—…rate of England is not a member of the church as a magistrate but as a Christian and that he governs not as a Christian but as a magistrate I confesse I understand not why I may not say as well that a pastor is not a member of a church as pastor but as a Christian for there be in the church as well Balaams and false teachers as persecuting magistrates Why may I not say that a father is not to teach the fear of the Lord to his son as a father but as a Christian for the magistrate is not to rule and order affairs of the church as a Christian but as a magistrate otherwise a Christian without the office of magistracy might do the like How can the duty about the exercise of a power be divided from the power it self as that a magistrate should be by his duty of magistracy keeper of both tables and yet should have no power given from God for the keeping of these tables But which is most al surd how can the keeping of the two tables under the Gospell be separate from the keeping of the doctrine and discipline of the Gospell as that the magistrate should be keeper of one and the pastors of the other If the magistrate under the old Testament was keeper not only of the decalogue but also of the covenant of grace by which the people of Israel was distinguished from the rest of the world what hinders but he should be under the Gospells administration a keeper both of the law and Gospell except Mr. Gillespie say that the priests were keepers of the law whereof David speaketh in the 19 Psalme and the magistrate keeper of the two tables given in mount Sinai As for the magistrates being a member of the church and therefore no head or governour of the church I believe he is as much lyable to submit and stoup his will to the commands of Christ in the ministery as the lowest in the congregation he must acknowledge his minister the better man as honoured with the highest function that ever was and which the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ took upon him But were all the ministers of the Gospell as many Jesus Christs I would yield unto them all alike jurisdiction over the wills and minds of men but deny them an externall coercive judiciall power over their bodies estates liberties c. CHAPTER VIII Mr. Gillespies manifest contradictions in stating the magistrates power in matters of Religion BUt I will plainly shew that in this matter Mr. Gillespie doth manifestly contradict himself and stands on no sure ground for what he hath taken from the magistrate in some places in others he restoreth to him In some he grants as much to the magistrate as if he had been another Erastus in others he gives him nothing at all and makes ecclesiasticall and civil jurisdiction to be res disparatae or things as much different as wisedome and a candlestick being of severall classes and predicaments so that one hath nothing to meddle with the other Thus pag. 253. these be his words We deny that in a well-constituted church it is agreeable to the will of Christ for the magistrate either to receive appeals properly so called from the sentence of an ecclesiasticall court or to receive complaints exhibited against that sentence by that party censured so as by his authority upon such a complaint to nullify or make void the ecclesiasticall censure This indeed is imperium in imperio a jurisdiction within a jurisdiction and independent from it Mr. Gillespie would not have a man to appeal from the presbytery or synod or make complaints to the magistrate nor a magistrate to receive the complaints but he is contented that the magistrate should act the part of an executioner in compelling the party censured to submit to the church-censure which indeed is a most ungodly and tyrannicall proceeding like that of Pope Julius the 2. who would have King Lewis the 12. to execute the sentence against the Waldenses by destroying them by the sword and burning their cities without taking any cognizance of the fact And since all church-censures do signify just nothing without a power of magistracy giving its sanction for effectuating the sentence of the church here if we believe Mr. Gillespie the pastor is like the intellect and the magistrate the will this following with a blind obedience the dictates of that But who shall judge when the church is well constituted that then the magistrate may not receive complaints and appeals and may not sometimes wrong proceedings und unjust sentences passe in a well-constituted church so long as a church never so pure is not infallible and on the contrary may not an unsettled church be very just in their censures why then should it be more agreeable to the will of Christ to receive appeals from a just sentence in an unsettled church then from an unjust one when the church is well-constituted But when was ever such a well-constituted church unerring in their judgement as all appeals from their judgement to another should be unlawfull was or is that church well-constituted that either ever clashed with magistracy or was divided in it self as now it is Now we shall find Mr. Gillespie playing two other parts under the one he ascribeth to the magistrate as much as ever they challenged under the other vizard he chalks a middle way of magistrates power in sacred things
the sentence before he causeth it to be executed 3. that the magistrate having both the last judgement of approbation and of that they call imperative or command to yield obedience to the declarations and sentences of synods or consistories it is plain he is the soveraign judge of all ecclesiasticall judgements sentences and debates and that they are but counsells and advices till the magistrate approveth of them and commandeth them This single passage of Mr. Gillespie graunted unto him might serve for an answer to all his book would overthrow all ecclesiasticall jurisdiction And indeed all the controversie lieth in the narrow compasse of these few lines of his the matter of which by right should have been the main subject and bulk of his book and not have been so slightly passed over for this is the very hinge on which Gualterus and Maccovius conceive that the whole controversie betwixt Erastus and his opposites hung and which as it is stated by Maccovius will give a bone to pick till doomsday to the assertors of an ecclesiasticall jurisdiction it is a Gordian knot which they will never disintangle but by cutting of it the truth of it being so undeniable that it was never answered by Walaeus Apollinus Triglandius nor by Mr. Gillespie who indeed in this paragraph alledgeth the substance of Maccovius positions but doth not answer them to any purpose The three positions of Maccovius are brought by severall in various terms but all to the same purpose and are these 1. It is the duty of the magistrate to look and take order that the word of God be preached with purity that the Sacraments and the discipline of the church be duely administred and to make a diligent enquiry into the ministers performing of these and to punish them if either they misse or do amisse in the dâ—scharge of their places Which words of Maccovius Rivetus upon the decalogue doth expresse in equivalent terms It is the duty of ministers to infuse doctrine to wound by censures to administer the sacraments immediatly and personally and as they speak ex officio by their office Now the magistrate under whose authority these things are to be done if ministers do not perform them by his grave and commanding power may and ought to force them and enjoâ—n them to do these things and to do them well and to punish them that do otherwise then they should do 2. The second position of Maccovius is Since no determinations or sentences of presbyteries and synods have any force of obligation in them to obedience without the sanction of the magistrate therefore not the presbyteries and synods but the magistrate is the supreme judge giver and maker of all constitutions sentences and determinations of consistories and synods 3. The third is The magistrate is either to put his seal of sanction and give his judgement of approbation to all the judgements sentences and definitions of synods with a blind judgement and stand without disputing within himself to what they agreed and decreed among themselves or he must disapprove those things that in his own apprehension are not good and convenient and approve what he conceiveth to be true just and fit Whatever the opposers chose they are at a stand for they make the magistrate either a soveraign judge and arbiter over all ecclesiasticall matters or a sergeant and blind executioner of the judgements and sentences of synods and presbyteries Mr. Gillespie being not able any way to make invalide the strength of these positions of Maccovius only saith that the magistrate in having the last view and cognizance of all ecclesiasticall determinations and giving his sanction to them does not judicem agree but judâ—care which I know not how to English but that in so doing he doth not the part of a judge and yet doth judge of the thing But what strength hath this That man doth the part of a judge in whose power and breast it is to make valid and currant or to disannull whatever is debated and determined by others Of much like strength is it when he saith that the magistrate judgeth whether he ought to adde his civil authority to this or that which seemeth good to church-officers and doth not concur therewith except he be satisfied in his conscience Which if he may do the magistrate hath as much as Maccovius proveth to belong to him for in that he is not satisfied and doth not concur with the judgements of church-officers he maketh all their judgements void null of no force to oblige either actively or passively any man or assembly under his jurisdiction Had not the states of the low-countreys approved and ratified the synod of Dordrecht their decrees would have been but counsells advices and answers of prudent and wise men and had not put any obligation upon the ministers churches schools and academies within their dominions more then upon England or France to be conformable to their determinations Next in the conclusion Mr. Gillespie saith that this doth not make him supreme judge and governour in ecclesiasticall causes which is the prerogative of Iesus Christ nor yet doth it invest the magistrate with the subordinate ministeriall forinsecall directive judgement in ecclesiasticall things or causes which belongeth to an ecclesiasticall not to a civil court I understand not wherefore he bringeth this for what he hath said before doth sufficiently evince the magistrate to be soveraign judge and governour over all persons and in all ecclesiasticall causes and censures so long as they are of no force and cannot be brought to execution except the magistrate approves of them and commands them It seemeth Mr. Gillespie by these words would put it to the vote who must be the supreme judge and governour in ecclesiasticall causes whether the ministers or the magistrate It is sure enough if we believe him the magistrate must not be It remains then that the ministers should be the supreme judges and governors for all M. Gillespies drift is to take from the magistrate that which he saith duly pertaineth to the ministers and in short to put as he conceiveth the saddle upon the right horse For to what end should he except against the magistrates being invested with the power of supreme judgement and government in ecclesiasticall causes but to reinvest the ministers into it and to declare that that usurpation in the magistrate was done to the prejudice and wrong of the ministers to whom it is due by right Here then Mr. Gillespie maketh the ministers of the Gospell supreme judges and governors in ecclesiasticall causes whereas he alwayes before declined those titles as belonging only to and being the prerogative of Jesus Christ But suppose ministers in synods and consistories had also the coercive power and were invested with that externall jurisdiction that giveth force and sanction to all their censures this I trow would not make them more or lesse supreme judges and governors in ecclesiasticall causes then the
7. It is very compauble that in one government there should be many â—anks and sorts of men contributing thâ—ir caâ—e towards it so that all these cares be not coordinate but subordinate and every rank of men take care in its proper place and with subordination to some principall power that must have the chief care of it This the Papists as they hold so they practise for they make the magistrate but subservient to the care that the Pope is to take in governing the church yielding to his judgement and commands and executing his decrees and buls without controul But the presbyterians that are not yet agreed how to levell the duties of the ministers and of the magistrate about taking care of the government of the church have cast us into an endlesse unceâ—tainty which of them is to have the greatest â—hiefest care For whereas Rivetus saith that the magistates chief and first care is the administration of sacred things and the government of the church and his second care the government of the Common-wealth Walaus Apollonius Mr. Gillespie and a hundred more will tell us that that care doth mainly and first belong to ministers and next to them that magistrates have an auxiliary ecclesiasticall power by which they are to ayd the ministers in the government of the church So that if each party conceiveth that the care of the church doth not belong chiefly to the other but that he is to look to it as he thinks fitting and not to trust the main care with any one but himself I fear we shall need a third party to take care that these two may care but for one thing 8. Those words of Jesus Christ I will give thee the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind c. and against that church which they say is the Romish church the gates of Hell shall not prevail seem literally to confer a very great power yea to give an infallibility the power of remitting and retaining sins and of granting indulgences being not repugnant to the non-erring power But the giving this great power of the keyes of Heaven and of binding and loosing expressed in very high and emphaticall terms cannot be applyable to a presbyterian church against which the gares of hell shall not prevail nor can it stand with the little modulus of power of a presbytery which yet hath found no legs to walk on they not resolving us yet whether the pastor or the people or both must excommunicate that the sentence of excommunication may be valid nor how farre it reacheth 9. Particularly that saying of the Papists that there cannot be a greater argument that their judgements are infallible then this that God ratifieth them in Heaven is much according to the literall arguing of the Scripture saying that whatsoever shall be bound c. that is as they interpret it whatsoever shall be decreed by them and passed on earth shall afterwards be ratified and approved in Heaven For were their judgements fallible then God would not have tyed himself by his promise to approve of all the erroneous judgements of men which they say cannot be said without blasphemy But the fallibility of the judgements of presbyterian judicatories is repugnant to the letter of the Scripture which promiseth to ratify all the judgements that are passed by men on earth 10. So for the power of the Pope in absolving and loosing men from their oaths and promises and fidelity due to their soveraign it doth very well agree with the letter of the Scripture whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven for here is a power given without any modification But that of presbyterian jâ—dicatory not challenging such a power and yet grounding their power upon the same Scripture must so much the more recede from the Scripture and therefore they need a place of Scripture as pregnant for their power as the Romanists have for theirs 11. Lastly the jurisdiction held by the Papists is a true valid jurisdiction for it is coercive and extendeth to the body estate liberty and good name the Pope and Bishops have their prisons but the presbyterian is a name without a thing for they are loth to call it coercive it must be then perswasive I wish they would hold there suspend their excommunication of any person till he be perswaded so to be which I think he will never be or till they can inform him that excommunication is an ordinance of Jesus Christ as well as the preaching of the word and the administration of the Sacraments as they tell us in the 63. page of their answer to the reasons of the dissenting brethren which neither do I think they ever will be able to doe 12. But though the ecclesiasticall presbyterian power as it is held to be independent and not subordinate to the magistrate is lesse consonant to Scripture and reason then the papall ecclesiasticall power yet I must say thus much for the brethren of the presbytery that their excommunication as they hold it from a power coordinate and independent from the magistrate is more consistent with reason then that excommunication held by the learned and rever Dr. Hammond agreeth with his subordinating the ecclesiasticall episcopall power to the magistrate as supreme governour of the church under Christ for according to the Doctors opinion one cannot conceive of the power of excommunicating but as the power of the magistrate and of excommunication but as a law of the magistrate which yet I believe he will not grant For were he willing to grant thus much then besides that he and I should not differ he would get reason and Scripture more on his side then 〈…〉 ur brethren of the presbytery or the Papâ—…s have Now that some remaining within the communion of Rome have acknowledged as much as we concerning the nullity of a double jurisdiction the power of the magistrate in sacred things and the nature of the Kingdom of God I could prove by many of them truth breaking forth through the darknesse of popery whereas Mr. Rutherfurd and Gillespie were blind in so clear day of revealed truth I have already alâ—edged Claude Fauchet John du Tiller who tâ—ll us that there was no such thing as a double jurisdiction for many hundred years after Christ and with them agreeth the authour of the Review of the Councill of Trent whâ—… the 6. book chap. 5. saith that the 〈…〉 Fâ—ance hold their jurisdiction not from the Pope but from the King of France We have also alledged Tosâ—atus upon the 16. of Nauhew asserting that among the Jewes there was no distinction of jurisdiction Hotomannus a famous Lawyer and a Papist in his book of the Liberties hath these words It is certain that ecclesiasticks as ecclesiasticks have neither fisck nor territorie nor any jurisdiction but only liberty to declare what is fitting to be observed without receiving or execut on of their opinion But I will insist
change for the better or hinder a change for the worse The King or another magistrate as he doth not ordain so he doth not depose formally as I may so speak or administratorily yet he doth it of himself not only by his counsell command and authority for he may command it when there is just cause of deposing a minister to those that have that power in the church who in that case and there being just cause for it if they do not obey and do what he commandeth are subject not only to wrath but also to Gods judgement Ministers as ministers are subjects to the soveraign magistrate why then should it not be lawfull to appeal from the judgement of subjects to the supreme magistrate and why may it not be lawfull for the supreme magistrate to review the judgements of his subjects to ratify them if they be good and to abrogate them if they be bad There is a subjection of the magistrate to the ecclesiasticall senat but not of jurisdiction as under a command but of direction and counsell CHAPTER XXXIII The judgement of some Divines yet living both of the argument in hand and of the writings of the Author Of some mens strong prejudices against harsh censures of him I Have through all this book and in the first section of my Corollarium proved that I have digressed nothing in my Paraenesis from Scripture reason about the right of churches and the magistrates power in matters of religion but my opinion is also confirmed by two kinds of authorities of learned and orthodox Divines The first kind of authorities is of those that for the main concur with me or rather I with them such are Zuinglius Musculus Bullingerus Gualterus Mestrezat Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs Mr. Lightfoot c. The second kind is of those that though in generall they profess to be for a church-government distinct from that of the magistrate yet if one take notice of all the positions concerning that argument which each of them admit and grant will be found jointly though not every one of them considered a part to say as much as I just as the Protestants doctrine will be found in all though not in each of the Romish authors overcome by the evidence of truth in the handling of some points controverted betwixt them and us as Scotus confesseth that Transubstantiation hath no ground in Scripture Cajetan denyeth the Popish indulgences Bellarmin after he hath much heightned the merit of works concludeth with a â—utissimum est and flieth to the righteousnesse of Christ apprehended by faith as the safest anchor to stay a staggering Christian Jansenius is right in the doctrine of grace all the rest in some positions or other hold with us And of this kind are Bucer Martyr Jewell Zanchius Reynolds Camero Rivet and many more who besides by yielding an inch have given us a whole handfull to believe that what we have discoursed of the nature of power lawes judgement the right of churches and the magistrates power in matters of religion is both reason and Scripture For whoever admits as most of these authors do that the judgements of Pastors in presbyteries synods are subordinate to that of the soveraign Christian magistrate and that appeals from church-judicatories to the magistrate are grounded upon Scripture reason and the practise of all nations and besides saith that the magistrate is the supreme governour and head of the church over all causes and persons whoever I say grants these to be truths must needs overthrow ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and power of excommunication except it be in subordination to and dependently on the magistrate But among all the reformed Divines who appear in the throng of those that hold an ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and a government distinct from that of the magistrate none hath delivered positions in print so near the language of Mr. Coleman as Ludovicus Cappellus pastor and Professor at Saumur yet living hath done which passing currant for truth from the mouth of Cappellus if they had fallen from Mr. Coleman would have been taken by our brethren the Scots for pernicious and dangerous tenets and mere Erastianisme In the first part of his Theses Salmurienses de potestate regimine Ecclesiae thes 12. he saith that pastors have properly no other jurisdiction then that which subdueth the affections of the world and the flesh when the spirit of Christ in the word restraineth the assaults of Satan that there is no other authority of governing the church then what is seated in Christ the head when by the efficacy of his spirit he enlighteneth the mind and convinceth the conscience In his 40. thesis he saith that the constitutions of the church have authority no further then as they agree with reason In his 41. and 42. he puts equall stresse of duty upon the magistrate in governing and ordering the church the commonwealth as being keeper of one table as well as the other These are his words in Latin Porro his de rebus dispiciendi atque statuendi ita penes ecclesiam hoc est ecclesiasticos quos vâ—cant viros est potestas ut si magistratus pius Christianus sit fierâ—id non debeat non modo sine ejus consilio conscientia verum etiam sine ejus authoritate qua ea quae videbuntur in hoc genere conducibilia confirmentur vimque legis obtineant Is nempe est utriusque divinae legis Tabulae vindex atque custos ad quem propterea pertinet etiam pastores si cessent vel peccent in officium movere objurgare ubi opus fuerit castigare denique prospicere atque providere ut omnia tum in ecclesia tum in republica seu politia recte ordinate fiant utque ordinis legitime constituti turbatores violatores pro merito puniantur This he seemeth to speak after Pareus in his Miscellanea Catechetica art 11. aphoris 18. where he layeth upon the magistrate a greater duty in governing the church then the commonwealth and more in keeping the first table then the second Hoc vero jus gubernandi ecclesias sacra Scriptura disertim magistratui attribuit ut ei quemadmodum tenetur procurare ut bonum civile in foro judiciis legitime administretur ita non minor imo longe major ejus cura esse debeat ut jus Divinum bonum illud animarum hoc est vera religio pietas subditis suis in ecclesia scholis ad aeternam eorum salutem proponatur juxta legem testimonium idem docent exempla laudatissimorum regum Davidis c. Sic Paulus affatur Christianos Romanos Minister est Dei tuo bono ubi intelligit omne bonum tam civile terrenum quam ecclesiasticum seu spirituale secus namque magistratus homini Christiano non plus commodaret quam infideli Ac sane dolendum est rectius in hoc capite sensisse olim ethnicos qui unanimi consensu regi suo demandarunt
Of the Right of CHURCHES And of The Magistrates power over them Wherein is further made out 1. The nullity and vanity of ecclesiasticall power of excommunicating deposing and making lawes independent from the power of Magistracy 2. The absurdity of the distinctions of power and lawes into ecclesiasticall and civil spirituall and temporall 3. That these distinctions have introduced the mystery of iniquity into the world and alwayes disunited the minds and affections of Christians and brethren 4. That those reformers who have stood for a jurisdiction distinct from that of the magistrate have unawares strenghthened the mystery of iniquity By LEWIS du MOULIN Professour of History in the Vniversity of Oxford Hieronym in cap. 9. Ierem. Nec Parentum nec Majorum error sequendus est sed authoritas Scripturarum Dei docentis Imperium LONDON Printed by R. D. and are to be sold by Sa Thomson at the white Horse in St. Paul's Church-yard 1658. To the high COURT Of the PARLIAMENT Of England Scotland and Ireland Right Honourable I Offer unto your Honours the first and greatest task though the meanest work that hath been yet undertaken which is to make the right and power of private Churches consistent and sociable with the Magistrates power over them so to sever by Divine right the sacred function of Ministery from that of Magistracy as to make both their jurisdictions but one and derive it from the soveraign power of the State and this from the Lord Iesus Christ who hath given unto the Magistrate soveraign power and authority for a soveraign end even to set up and promote the interest of his Kingdom It is one of the most dangerous heresies that ever the wicked one did sow among his tares that the Magistrate though Christian and godly doth not intend ex natura rei and in regard of his particular vocation the glory of Iesus Christ as Mediatour and King of his Church and that the end of Magistracy is not godliness and honesty but peace and quietnesse For these be the words of Mr. Gillespie in his Aarons Rod pag. 187. and 188. much like those pag. 253. where he saith that in a well-constituted Church the Magistrate ought not to receive complaints exhibited against a sentence of an Ecclesiasticall Court by the party censured which language I humbly conceive to be rank Popery for this heresy if I may call it so because it is the main engine to subvert the doctrine hath been and is still the greatest dividing principle that the world hath ever had it disunites mens minds and affections it divides most absurdly jurisdictions into spirituall temporall lawes into ecclesiasticall and civil it builds up a magistracy within the dominions of magistrates independent from them These erroneous tenets I maintain in this Book to have set up Popery and to be the grand mystery of iniquity and not their broaching of a hundred heresies which were but consequences and products of that great mystery and which are very compatible consistent with the main drift designe of that mystery even to set up a jurisdiction a government on earth distinct from that of the Magistrate whereas the reformation from Popery which England of all nations hath been most blessed with is altogether inconsistent with the retaining of that spring-head of the mystery of Iniquity by which powers jurisdictions are divided and you the Magistrates are removed and discharged from your principall duty of magistracy which is not so much to procure out ward temporall peace as eternal happiness to make Acts of Parliament Statutes Lawes Courts Armies Navies Taxes Excise Custome punishment of evil doers subservient to that end Which duty I humbly conceive to be so much the more incumbent on you by how much greater the power is that God hath put into your hands This being an undeniable truth that where God hath given more power authority and opportunity to do good there also he hath laid more obligation and duty For I dare confidently affirm that all the godly martyrs and ministers that ever were in England put together were they so many Bradfords Latimers Greenhams had not so much obligation laid upon them to promote the interest of Iesus Christ in setting up his ordinances as one single woman Queen Elizabeth had upon her So then right Honourable I have two main tasks upon my hands One to root out that dividing principle and remain of Popery amongst us and to prove that there is no other ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but that which the spirit of God in the word by the preaching of the Gospell hath over the consciences of men when it convinceth and perswadeth them and brings every thought affection captive unto the obedience of the crosse of Christ The other task is to make your power and duty of magistracy in matters of religion sociable with the right libertie yea independency of churches For the magistrates are to set up pure ordinances Ministery Schools of learning to call Synods and invite all men to join with them in promoting the interest of Iesus Christ but they are not to constrain any mans freedom liberty choice drawing him to Church perforce and urging him to embrace rather this Ordinance then that For as they cannot command grace so they cannot punish any man for want of grace or for an errour in judgement yet they may punish for an errour in practise if it be a breach of the law of the land they ought also to restrain men from spreading blasphemies and heresies laying that tye upon them which the Theodosian Code l. omnis de haeret imposeth ut sibi tantum nocitura sentiant aliis obfutura non pandant to keep those hurtfull tenets to themselves not to vent them abroad to the infecting of others All these notions positions I am confident I can make out so plain that they shall be obvious to any ordinary understanding straining neither Scripture nor reason nor casting the mist of grammaticall and scholasticall learning to keep men off from seeing their way discerning the truth nor loading the margent with quotations which draw the minde beside the context May it please you to pardon this bold address and uncouth dresse and language of a stranger and yet no longer a stranger being by your bounty naturalized and made an English-man who in affection and zeal to promote the religion peace and wealth of these three Nations under the protection of his Highnesse and to that end to bestow his labour studies yea his life will not shew himself inferiour to any Native I shall dye with much comfort if in my life-time I can see some fruit of my labours as I doubt not but I shall conjecturing it by the effects that my other labours in this kind have already wrought upon mens minds beyond seas possessed before with prejudices both against this subject and the godly party of this Nation If your Honours apprehend this to be a truth
oblige the conscience Hence we may gather how impossible it is to share betwixt laity and clergy by Divine and humane right power of legislation and jurisdiction about things causes and persons as that pastors and ministers should be over things that are of divine right and magistrates over those things that are of humane right without clashing of powers causes and persons there being such a complication of right causes and persons that they cannot be so much as imagined a sunder besides that the preaching of the Gospell and magistracy do comprehend all actions of man and parts of life wherein men ought to live godly justly and soberly CHAPTER III. The nature matter forme and author of law The canons and sentences of Church-judicatories have no force of law except they receive it from the sanction of the magistrate The defects in the division of lawes into Divine and humane into morall ceremoniall and politick and into Ecclesiasticall and civil INtending chiefly to prove the vanity and nullity of a power called ecclesiasticall distinct from that of the magistrate since also no power of legislation nor of jurisdiction can be exercised without a power to make a law and to command obedience to the law it will be requisite to know the nature of law that so making good that Church-officers are not invested with any power to make lawes or to command obedience to them all their jurisdiction may be brought to just nothing Law sometimes is taken for a dictate of nature or right reason and consent of nations thus they say of Aesop that though he was free by nature yet the law of man enslaved him generally it is defined the rule of actions and duties This ensuing definition I conceive to be one of the most perfect Law is a rule of life and of morall actions made and published by a legislatour armed with a judiciall power commanding things to be done and forbidding things that are not to be done under recompenses and penalties To understand the nature of law we must consider the matter of law which is whatever can be commanded whether God or man be the author of it so that no causes or things can be exempted from being the matter of the law of God or of man it is enough that it may be commanded The very doctrine and matter of faith may be matter of the law for the Hebrew thorah signifieth both law and doctrine so that there is no doubt but that not only the decalogue but also all the doctrine of the Gospell is matter of the law For were there any thing that should not be the matter of the law of man we had need to have a visible infallible judge on earth besides the soveraign magistrate who should determine which thing must be the matter of the law which not The very doctrine of the Trinity is made the matter of the Code of Justinian and Theodosius commanded that all his subjects should embrace the religion that Peter the Apostle Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria professed 2. Next we must consider the form of the law which giveth force of law and without which law would be no law and no obedience were due to it in the court of man That form is the stamp or sanction of the soveraign power obliging men to obey upon penalties Law saith Campanella without penalty is no law but counsell That form is expressed in short in the Digests Legis virtus c. the vertue of the law is to command to forbid to permit to punish The soveraign power giveth the form of law to any matter that is the subject of a mans dutie or obedience either to God or man yea it giveth form to the lawes of God which though they oblige the conscience whether published or no by the magistrate yet they are of no force in the court of man to oblige for fear of punishment and as the Apostle speaketh for wrath except they are commanded by the magistrate So that it is properly man that giveth name and force to a law and a man may well say with St. Austin ep 66. that Jesus Christ commandeth by the magistrate hoc jubent Imperatores quod jubet Christus quia cum bonum jubent per illos non jubet nisi Christus 3. We must consider the author of the law either as he that hath given his counsell and it may be furnished the matter and contrivance of the law as Tribonianus to Iustinian or he that hath given sanction and force of law to the matter brought to him such was only Justinian and not Tribonianus Sometimes the same person contrives the law and giveth sanction to it such was Solon and Lycurgus God who is the author of his lawes is not the enforcer of them among the Mahumetans nor any where else without a Moses but with those people whom he doth encline to obedience by a law of the spirit 4. To the nature of the law it is required that the legislator be armed with a sword to punish the transgressours of the law therefore equity truth and justice are no conditions required to the validity of a law for it receives force from the will of him who is able to make his will good were it never so bad 5. It is required that the legistator should command his own lawes not anothers commanding in his own name and not in the name of another and therefore those that are invested with judiciall soveraign power are to give account of their actions only to God By what I have said it is easily conceived what force of law have the judgements sentences canons decrees of ecclesiasticall judicatories except they receive form and sanction from the magistrate without which they are but counsels admonitions and advices 1. Touching the matter they may afford it as Tribonianus to Iustinian in that sense they may be the authors of a law but they cannot give form and sanction to it obliging men under penalties in case of disobedience since they are not invested with coactive power without which law is no law except they have that power in subordination to the magistrate for two coordinate powers cannot give sanction to the same law except it could be imagined that the will of one should never crosse the will of the other which is not conceivable 2. Ministers and church-judicatories are not to command any lawes much lesse their own lawes but only deliver the commands of a superiour either God or the magistrate The pastor may say with Moses Exod. 18. v. 15. I do make the people know the statutes of God his lawes but he cannot lay any penalty upon the breaker of the law except as Moses he be invested with magistracy But were the minister not only to deliver the commands of God but also lay a command this he could not do but in the name of God and therefore the magistrate hath this priviledge that although he be a minister of God as well as
not trouble the reader with many quotations Yet to shew that this is no new doctrine I might produce some famous Romish authors who thought no lesse in the darkest times of ignorance for so Claude Fauchet hath left written a famous Historian and a Papist in his book of the liberties of the Gallicane church who out of Gregorie of Tours and the practise of his time proveth that the Kings of France were reputed heads of the church a title which many 100. years after was much found fault with in the Kings of England by the Romanists yea by some reformers He concludes his discourse thus which sheweth that the Bishops of that time did hold the King assisted by his counsell of State to be under God head on earth of the church in his Kingdom and not the Pope whom if they had looked on as the head they would have sent unto him the conclusion of the councill of Orleans and not to King Clovis So speaketh the author of the Review of the councill of Trent lib. 6. cap. 5. The ecclesiasticks in France do not hold their ecclesiastick jurisdiction from the Pope but from the King though the Iesuits teach otherwise CHAPTER VII The strength of Mr. Gillespies reasons to disprove that the magistrate is not chief governour of the church under Christ examined ALl that I have said doth sufficiently overthrow what Mr. Gillespie alledgeth for a double jurisdiction and against the magistrates being the chief governour of the church under Christ To make good that in a hundred places he doth much under value the magistrates power in sacred things namely p. 187. that the magistrate though Christian and godly doth not exnatura rei and in regard of his particular vocation intend the glory of Iesus Christ as mediator and King of the church In the next page The glory of Iesus Christ as mediatour and King of the church is not the end of magistracy And in the same page he saith that the end of magistracy is not godlinesse honesty but peace and quietnesse Pag. 235. he saith the magistrate is not to rule in the name of Christ Pag. 250. he saith the magistrate of England is not a member of the church as a magistrate but as a Christian In the 294. page the civil magistrate is Gods viceregent not Christs and ibid. If the magistrate be supreme head and governour of the church under Christ then the ministers of the church are the magistrates ministers as well as Christs and must act in the magistrates name and as subordinate to him and the magistrate shall be Christs minister and act in Christs name By all this he declareth his opinion more then he proveth it But to elude whatever strength this carries I further adde that God maketh use of two main instruments to promote and advance the Kingdom of Christ as mediatour 1. The first is the sacred function wholly set a part by God to preach the glad tidings of God reconciled to the world which function was first laid on Christ and then on the Apostles and the ministers of the Gospell who are embassadors and messengers of from Christ In this function there is no jurisdiction annexed but what the spirit in the word hath upon mens hearts for their conviction and conversion In the exercise of this function there is no law made by him that bears it but the law of the spirit no censure inflicted but on such as either willingly and not by constraint undergo it and chose whether they will or no or when it pleaseth God in judgement to afflict the despisers of Gods ministers ordinances This function I grant is not exercised in the magistrates name but Christs nor is it subordinate to him 2. The second thing servient if I may so speak and subservient to the promoting of the Kingdom of Christ is the magistrate and magistracy in as much as which I said before it cannot be that ministers and people assemble synods be called an outward government settled lawes published good men rewarded bad men punished heresies and hereticks rejected ministers maintained union preserved except ministers people synods be invested with a power of magistrate and magistracy These two as I suppose being undeniably true all Mr. Gillespies assertions above-mentioned will be found built upon the sand The magistrate having not the sacred function on him is no minister nor ambassadour of and from Christ neither doth the inward operative jurisdiction annexed to the sacred function arise from magistracy ex natura rei In that regard the minister preaching the Gospell and exercising his pastorall function is not the magistrates minister but Christs But as magistracy is the second necessary instrument which God employeth to promote the Kingdom of his Son in the world and for as much as it cannot be so much as imagined that magistracy is inherent in all pastors and assemblies of churches and synods no doubt but the ministers in that consideration may be called the magistrates ministers as both in the same respect are Christs ministers If Christs Kingdom cannot be nor ever was promoted without magistracy actually present and acting then the magistrate is a main minister of Christ in those acts Reverend and learned Mr. Lightfoot in his Harmony of the New Testament upon the 1 Cor. 5. clearly evinceth that church-officers cannot be so much as conceived to govern the churches without magistracy either assumed or delegated for having told us that every synagogue of the Jewes had magistracy within their own body judging betwixt party and party in matters of money Health damage yea inflicting corporall punishments he addeth all things well considered it may not be so monstrons as it seems to some to say it might very well be so in those times of Christian congregations for since as it might be shewed Christ and his Apostles in platforming the modell of Christian churches in those times did keep very close to the platform of synagogues and since the Romans in those times made no difference betwixt Iewes Iudaizing and Iewes that were turned Christians for as yet there was no persecution raised against Christianity why might not Christian congregations have and exercise their double function of ministry and magistracy in them as well as the Iewish synagogues and if that much controverted place 1 Tim. 5. 17. should be interpreted according to such a rule it were neither irrationall nor improbable Here by the way one may see that in synagogues there were severall functions but one Imperium and jurisdiction which was that of magistracy 2. that the churches of Christians were modelled according to Iewish synagogues 3. that every church had both ministery and magistracy By this likewise down goeth what he saith that the magistrate though Christian and godly doth not in regard of his particular vocation intend the glory of Jesus Christ as mediatour and King of the church The main end as well as duty of magistracy is the care of religion and so of
and no superinduction of character power duty gift or licence being conferred by the ordaining ministers so neither is there any thing taken away by any act of theirs of deposition or exauctoration only every one withdraweth his feather protection and countenance the magistrate withdraweth his licence the ministers say they will not hereafter hold him a fellow and partner in the work of the Gospell with them the people declare their dislike of the man and professe they will make use no further of his ministery which act is no more an act of jurisdiction then the refusing to take physick is an act of jurisdiction over the physitian CHAPTER XIII The nature of the ministers power and of that of binding and loosing the power of the keyes Amyraldus and Mr. Lightfoots judicious exposition of the power of binding and loosing The power of governing and ruling is not the ecclesiasticall contended for Mr. Gillespies arguments answered NExt we are to consider the nature and extent of the power of the ministers of the Gospell wholly the same with that the Prophets under the old Testament had a power not forcing the body but enlightening the understanding and convincing the heart ruling the affections and bringing them captive to the obedience of the crosse A power which the new Testament mentions in a hundred places either in the same words or in equivalent terms and yet never so much as once understandeth by it a presbyterian synodicall or ecclesiasticall power of deposing excommunicating and of making lawes and canons authoritatively but alwayes meaneth the vertue and efficacy of the spirit of God in the word and ministery called the power of God Rom. 1. v. 16. 1 Cor. 1. v. 14. and chap. 2. v. 5. and chap. 4. v. 19 20. Ephes 3. v. 20. 1 Pet. 1. v. 5. A power by excellency called POWER 1 Cor. 2. 4. by which we are the sons of God Joh. 1. v. 12 13. which no man can withstand Act. 6. v. 10. by which the eyes are enlightened and men turned from darknesse to light Act. 26. v. 18. pricking burning and affecting the heart with sorrow hope joy Act. 2. v. 7. Luc. 24. v. 32. diving into the secrets of the heart Hebr. 4. v. 16. where we have a description of the powerfull effects of the words except by the word we are to understand the word incarnate before whom all things created are said to be naked It is a power which is called the power of the resurrection Philipp 3. v. 10. also the power and demonstration of the spirit 1 Cor. 2. v. 4. a power of the wisdome and salvation of God and opposed to the power of Sathan and darknesse Act. 26. 18. Col. 1. v. 13. a power described in magnificent terms and mightily emphaticall 2 Corinth 10. v. 6. c. This is the power called otherwise the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing by which the slaves to sin and Satan are loosed and the despisers of the word by resisting the holy Ghost become more hard and bound I know of no other power of binding and loosing no other keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to the church-officers though properly speaking the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and the power of binding and loosing are not committed to ministers as the word is but as the spirit is in the word so that it is not the ministers but the word that bears the keyes the opening of the heart with those keyes as it is only the work of the spirit so is it known only to the spirit of God in the heart of man convinced and converted and not to the minister himself who only apprehendeth his office of being the word-bearer but is not sensible of its efficacy and workings Amyraldus thes 10. de 5. falso dictis sacramentis saith that the power of binding and loosing did only belong to the Apostles and that that power consisted in three particulars 1. that being led by an unerring spirit whatsoever in revealing the mystery of the Gospell they preached and approved for sound doctrine was to be received with like credit as if it had been delivered by Christ himself and whatever they said was amiss or false was likewise to be taken as if it had been pronounced so in Heaven this saith he is according to the Hebrew Idiome to bind and to loose 2. in inflicting corporall punishments and vexation by Satan upon those that dishonoured Christianity 3. in freeing those that were delivered to Satan upon their repentance and forgiving their sins He is yet much more expresse and diffuse upon this subject but I study brevity which makes me I do not here insert his own words in Latin but however he saith enough to undermine the foundation upon which the presbyterians build their excommunication which hitherto being mainly supported by that power of binding and loosing and the two chief stayes namely this place of Matth. 18. of binding and loosing and that of the incestuous person 1 Cor. 5. failing there now remaineth but a poor single crutch to draw along excommunication cut out of these words tell it unto the church Mr. Lightfoot an exceeding learned and reverend Divine giveth a very probable exposition of the power of loosing and binding in his Harmony Matth. 16. which doubtlesse doth carry in it more solidity and weight then the vulgar explication given by the Reverend Assembly and others of the power of censuring excommunicating and absolving He saith that the power of binding and loosing was given only to the Apostles as far as some part of Moses law was to stand in practise and some to be laid aside some things under the law prohibited were now to be permitted and some things permitted to be now prohibited so that in these words whatsoever c. Christ promiseth to the Apostles such an assistance of his spirit and giveth them such a power that what they allowed to stand in practise should stand and what to fall should fall in short what they bound on earth should be bound in heaven And that exposition is the more receivable because the Greek text speaks not of binding or loosing persons but things saying not whomsoever you shall bind but whatsoever things ye shall bind c. that is whatsoever things ye shall dispense with or oblige unto He also on the 1 Cor. 5. parallels this place of binding and loosing to Joh. 20. v. 22. whose sins yea retain they are retained c. and saith that that power was a peculiar gift to the Apostles when Christ breathed on them by which they spoke strange tongues healed diseases killed and made alive delivered up to Satan and bestowed the holy Ghost or the power to work the same miracles Which exposition strengtheneth the precedent which is but a branch and an effect of that miraculous power conferred on the Apostles For by the same power of miracles or of binding and loosing whereby they delivered to Satan and healed diseases they also
respect the pastor others the fellow-members Those that respect the pastor or pastors are to maintain observe respect and honour them first for their callings sake looking upon them as Ambassadours from Christ and then for their work and the word that they bear to receive their commands as commands of Christ and yet not with a blind obedience but first being perswaded and convinced yea judging them by the judgement of spirituall men and by a judgement of discretion and approbation proving the pastors doctrine though it came out of another St. Pauls mouth The acts and duties of church-members as such one towards another are to love edifie forbear and submit one to another But a main act of a church-member as such is not to submit his own reason to the number of his fellow-members in assenting to or dissenting from such a doctrine act or law made by them but to the weight and to what he by his reason inlightened by the word conceiveth to be most good true just and reasonable yet for conformity sake and mutuall edification yielding as far as he may The acts of the power of the church by a naturall divine politick civil right not as they are Christians or church-members but as they are a society of men endowed with humane prudence freedom of body and mind and have discretion as to govern themselves and their private families so to contribute their advice and help towards the government of any society of men whereof they are members these acts I say are common to all other societies as to a company a hall a corporation a colledge or school these acts are to do all things orderly to chuse their own church-officers that orders made by the major part of the society shall oblige the minor dissenting part to chuse time and place of meeting to admit or reject such officers or members as the major part of the members shall think fit that each member shall stand to any order of the discipline once consented unto by him till the order be reversed by the consent of the major part All these acts are to be guided not only by the light of reason and common prudence but chiefly by that measure of light of grace or faith that God hath imparted to every church-member which light being not known but to him that hath received it and the springs and motives which induce each member of a church-society rather to be of this then of that judgement in ordering and governing the society being unknown to the universality of the society therefore church-members are to be governed as the members of any other society by the dictate of men as men and not as Christians submitting either actively or passively to an order and law because it is an order and law not because it is good and reasonable It is better in such things as they say that a mischief should happen then an inconvenience for if one member though alone in the right should dissent from the rest of his fellow-members no man but will judge that it is much better that this one dissenting member should submit to that which is wrong either by acting or suffering then that all proceedings for order and discipline should be stayed Were no law valid but to him that thinketh it so the world would be in a strange confusion So then an assembly of Christians being a society of men and a Christian having the face like a lawyer a physitian or a merchant and nothing being seen but the out-side they must be all governed by the same dictate which appeareth prima fronte to be reason to a man considered as a man and not as he is a Christian lawyer or physitian And as Dionysius governed his Kingdom and school by the same dictates of reason so must a society of merchants a colledge of physitians a family and so a society of Christians Of these two kinds of acts as every society hath one proper to it self as it is a society of merchants physitians lawyers Christians so one kind of these acts is common to all as they are equally a society of men that must have a government and magistracy set up within themselves and so must a society of Christians meeting about the worship of God have But to make it evident that all church-acts are not acts of men as church-members but as members of a society and not as Christians but as invested with magistracy either assumed by a confederate discipline or delegated I might instance the like necessity of two kinds of acts in all societies of men that can be imagined not considered as Christians For example these two kinds of acts will be found in a colledge of physitians who as physitians joyn in consultation upon a case propounded to them send bills to their apothecaries examine and judge of the worth of those that are candidates or have license to practise physick discourse of their art either asunder or in a body as in a consultation but as a society of men invested with jurisdiction and magistracy they chuse a president censors and officers they make choise of time and place to sit they do all things orderly they admit or expell members they give authority and license to practise physick they bind themselves to stand to those orders that are made by the major part of their fellows which act is no act of physitians as physitians but a dictate of any other society who usually take that for a law of the society that hath passed by the major part of their members By this by the way we see what plea synods except they be infallible as the synod of the Apostles was can have for making decrees and canons by an ecclesiasticall jurisdiction it being in truth no other then what is assumed by all societies whose orders do passe for lawes as to themselves if made by the major part of their members But some of our brethren will interpose and say that if the Lord Jesus Christ hath appointed a set rule for governing of particular churches as some of them are of opinion and this rule be not arbitrary nor left to the dictate of mens common reason prudence then it followeth that those acts for taking care that those set rules of Christ for government be according to the mind of Christ are duties of church-members as such and not as members of a society To this I answer were it so that the Lord Jesus Christ had appointed an exact and expresse rule for government in particular churches I confess that those acts to see the mind of Christ fulfilled are acts of church-members as such so far as both pastor and members do act in obedience to God and not unto men not by constraint but willingly for so the preaching and hearing of the word are to be performed by church-members as such but these same acts specially about government as far as they are commanded and imposed and require externall obedience and that the
many constitutions about regulating the power of fathers masters and husbands and yet allowing them their authority at home are an argument that their fatherly power is consistent with their subordination to the magistrate 4. There be as I shewed above two kinds of acts to be performed in a church one as they are church-members the other as they are a society that for their government must assume some part of jurisdiction of the same nature with the magistrates power In the managing of the acts of the first kind there is no subordination of the church to the magistrate but only in the second for preaching hearing the word of God administring the sacraments walking holily submitting one to another are no acts of power subordinate to the magistrate and under that consideration I will grant the right of churches not to depend on the magistrate but as these acts in a church-way cannot be exercised without a power of magistracy assumed in this regard a church may be said to be subordinate to the fountain of magistracy For it is with these two kinds of acts in subordination to God and the magistrate as with the body and the soul For none doubts but the faculty and gifts of reasoning apprehending truth loving God and our neighbour believing in Christ are no acts subordinate to the power of the magistrate but as reasoning faith love must be supposed resident in the body of man and that the man in doing acts subordinate to the magistrates power as going ordering commanding and obeying doth carry along his reason faith and love in like manner as it is not possible to consider a man performing the acts of reason faith and love and not being the while subordinate to the power of the magistrate so a church even performing those acts of church-members as such in as much as the second kind of acts that are subordinate to the magistrate must be joyned with the first cannot be considered without it be subordinate to the magistrate 5. If the power of churches were not subordinate to the magistrate many inconveniences would follow 1. That some churches gathered by the magistrate and his acts of appointing time place and stipends should not be subordinate to him 2. Or if he should gather none and besides appoint no publick worship to take place in all parts of his dominions but leave that wholly to the will of those that congregate of their own accord this I say would in a very short time breed irreligion or heathenisme in most places and most tanks of men for then it must be conceived that not one of 20. would congregate of themselves that the 19. parts not being called upon nor any way invited by publick ordinances set up in all places of mens abode atheisme or neglect of all religion would soon ensue in most parts And a persecuting magistrate as in the primitive church were ten times rather to be wished then one carelesse and neglecting to set up ordinances for by one of these two wayes either by persecution or by countenancing and commanding the worship of God the magistrate causeth religion to flourish by doing neither one nor the other he takes the way to abolish it as Julian the apostate was about to do if God had not the sooner cut him off 6. But suppose it be granted on all sides that the magistrate is bound to do what King Edward did or Queen Elizabeth to banish popery to set up protestantisme and an orthodox ministery in all parishes throughout England which acts cannot be performed by a few particular churches with all their church power sure it must be also granted that all those acts of a magistrate in ordering affairs of religion are in his disposall and depending on him 7. Since then the magistrate must have the ordering of those affairs of religion which he himself hath constituted if he should not likewise be the supreme governour of those churches which he hath not erected but were gathered by the members of churches of their own accord there could not but a great confusion arise in mens minds as well as in the state it being no small businesse to distinguish the power of the churches that are subordinate to the magistrate and the power of those churches that are not From reason I descend to the authority of the rever brethren both in old and new England dissenting from the presbyterians In old England the reverend pious Jeremie Burroughs will be in stead of all the rest of his brethren for in the eleventh chapter of his Irenicum he professeth to deliver not only his own judgement but also that of his brethren with whom he had occasion to converse Whoever shall peruse his book throughout specially the fifth chapter will find that he attributeth as much power to the magistrate over churches as any of the opposites to the presbyterian brethren Which power of the magistrate while he asserteth he never conceives it should overthrow his other positions namely in the seventh chapter concerning the right and power of churches or that his stating the right liberty and power of churches could not consist with the power of the magistrate over them Now he is very expresse in the said chapter for the power of the magistrate in sacred things Pag. 21. he saith that magistrates in their magistracy are specially to ayme at the promoting of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the mediatour and there and throughout that long chapter you have these conclusions 1. That the church and Commonwealth of Israel were mixed in one that there is no reason it should be now otherwise 2. That the power of the magistrate is alike in the times of the old and new Testament and were it so that nothing were set down of it in the new Testament that it is enough it is a law not only granted to the Israelites but also of the light given to the very heathens whose power of magistracy was to govern religion as well as other things 3. That it is most unreasonable that a magistrate turning either from the heathenish or Jewish religion should enjoy lesse power in matters of religion then he had when he was a Jew or heathen An infidel magistrate saith he converted to Christian religion is thereby better inabled to perform the duty of his place then before but he had the same authority before 4. He holds that the magistrate hath a soveraign judgement of his commands though unskilfull in the things commanded A magistrate that is not skilfull in physick or in navigation yet he may judge physitians and mariners if they wrong others in their way 5. He asserts largely the power of the magistrate in matters of religion by the example of the Kings of Judah and Israel yea of the Kings of Niniveh and of Artaxerxes interposing his power in matters of religion for which Ezra blesseth God whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the King let judgement be executed upon
crime to appeal or repair about any matter to Jerusalem or attend at those solemn meetings enjoyned by the law of Moses three times in the year and every seventh year and therefore to keep themselves free from idolatry they frequented as much as they could those places of convocation as appeareth by a notable example 2 Kings 4. v. 22. For when the Sunamitish woman desired an asse to ride on to Elisha her husband told her wherefore will you go to him to day it is neither new moon nor sabbath The greatest part of these houses of convocation for some of them did not much alter from their first institution but remained schools and nothing else in processe of time did not properly degenerate but changed their nature and lasted longer thus then in their first institution and that begun from the time that they were led into captivity and so continued under the Babylonians Persians Grecians and then the Romans for whereas at first they needed no other discipline then the law of their nation which received vigour strength and protection from their own magistrate who was a friend and protectour of their law religion and liberty when afterwards they lived under those that were no good friends to their lawes and religion and yet were suffered to enjoy them both being dispersed they were fain to alter the frame of their assemblies and convocations and make of them so many little Commonwealths endowed with judiciall authority yet retaining still some prime face of a church or convocation and besides more mixture of ranks of men for not only Prophets were governours and members but also Priests Levites and elders of the people and all matters were handled as in a court of magistracy and yet reading and expounding of the law was not forgot as we see Act. 13. v. 27. and ch 15. v. 21. Nor was it grown out of use for scholars or young Prophets to sit at the feet of the Rabbins and receive instructions as St. Paul at the feet of Gamaliel Act. 22. v. 3. and Marie at the feet of the Lord Jesus or for the young Prophets to ask questions of the old as 1 Cor. 14. v. 29. And as the form and matter handled did alter so also the Prophets and teachers did change their names and were called Doctours Rabbies Lawyers Masters Scribes and Wise among the Jews And such were the synagogues in the time of Christ which Mr. Gillespie is not certain whether he ought to call churches or civil courts yet he is rather of opinion that before the 30. year of Christ when they had power to judge of capitall matters they were rather civil courts then churches but after the 30. year of Christ this judgement of causes for life and death being taken from them then they were to be called churches or ecclesiasticall assemblies Which is a very frivolous exception as ever was devised and sheweth the weaknesse of his cause For is a court more or lesse civil because it hath or hath not the judgement of capitall causes By that reason most courts in England should be ecclesiasticall as the court of Exchequer court Baron and court Let. But the nature of those convocations synagogues or particular churches of the Jews having been for many hundred years since they were carried first into captivity such that they were invested not only with a faculty to perform duties and acts of worship to God but also with a power of magistracy when a great many of them from synagogues of the Jewes were after turned into churches of Christians they retained the same constitution and qualification in performing church-church-duties and exercising power of magistracy which sometimes was assumed by the consent of the members sometimes delegated by the Emperours For as the Jewes began to be the first professours of Christian religion so the first churches were synagogues of the Jewes converted to Christian religion but yet before the conversion of an entire synagogue those that were Christians concealed themselves for fear of the rest and yet did not depart but when they were persecuted or thrust out of the synagogue So that some synagogues for some Christians that were among them were called churches as we may see if we compare Gal. 1. v. 13. with Act. 22. v. 19 for in one place St. Paul saith that he persecuted in every synagogue those that professed the name of Christ in the other that he did persecute the church And Act. 18. v. 19. it is like that either the greatest part or the whole synagogue was a Christian church though it retained still the name of a synagogue And no doubt at Antioch the whole synagogue professed Christ since they durst openly take the name of Christians But the words of Christ Iohn 16. v. 2. they shall put you out of the synagogue shew that syâ—agogues of the Iewes should become Christian churches and that those that professed the name of Christ or at least believed in him secretly for fear of the Iewes were not to depart that by their means the whole synagogue might be wonne and therefore the Lord Iesus Christ takes this expulsion for an injury done to them in the foregoing verse These things have I spoken to you that ye be not offended Had not the Lord Iesus a mind to make of these synagogues churches he would have bidden those that were Christians amongst them to flee from them and go from them as he biddes his people flee out of Babylon And indeed we do not read that Crispus chief ruler of the synagogue and other believing Iewes did forsake the synagogue or that when the whole synagogue was converted it did presently loose the name of a synagogue but kept it as we see Iames 2. v. 2. If there come into the synagogue and Hebr. 10. v. 22. The very heathens did not put a distinction for a good while betwixt Iewes Christians for Suetonius saith that Claudins did restrain the Iewes who by the impulsion of Christ did raise tumults So that in expelling the Iews the Christians were comprehended for it is said Act. 18. v. 2. that Aquila and Priscilla though Christians were commanded to depart from Rome And as the Christians suffered as Iewes so what priviledges they enjoyed it was a grant unto the Iewes and as in the 9. of Claudius the Iewes and with them the Christians were banished so in the first year of his Empire the same liberty that was granted unto the Iews did also belong to the Christians So then the synagogues were the first origine and platform of Christian churches and after those synagogues the gentils converted did modell their churches retaining the same power of magistracy as the synagogues had as Mr. Lightfoot doth very well observe yea in their way of teaching following the Prophets in their synagogues which were also schools of learning as namely when they spoke by turns and the younger Prophets submitted to the judgements of the elder 1 Cor. 14. v. 29 30 c.
not of their own nation and religion then they performed by a confederate discipline what the magistrate was to enjoin and command them The confession of Basilartic 6. hath a notable saying speaking of the duty of magistrates to propagate the Gospell as they are magistrates This duty was enjoyned a magistrate of the gentils how much more ought it to be commended to the Christian magistrate being the Vicar of God If then the heathen magistrate fails of his duty in not propagating the Gospell those that live under him and are better minded ought to supply the part of the magistrate in that particular and yet in doing of that they do but perform their own duty and businesse like as a master leading his horse down the hill his man being out of the way doeth both his own businesse and that of his man and both employeth his own strength in guiding an unruly horse and supplieth that of his man or which expresseth more lively the thing in hand as the Duke of Somerset in training up Prince Edward in the true religion did both do his own duty and that of Henry the 8. his father who being wanting to his duty in shewing his power authority to have his son brought up in the true Protestant religion Somerset Cranmer and others were not to be wanting to theirs and yet were not to act by a power distinct from the power of the King for if so then when ever a power is exercised rightly and yet against an unlawfull command of a superiour we had need to give a new name to that power and there would be as many kinds of power as duties to be performed Having done with Origen I come to Ambrose whom I was to alledge upon the 1. of Timothy relating to the places of St. Paul and Origen and to the power of magistracy assumed by churches There he teacheth the custom both of the synagogues of Christian churches of having elders that composed in stead of the magistrate controversies arising amongst church-members saying that first synagogues and afterwards churches had elders without whose advice there was nothing done in the church and wondreth that in his time which was about the year 370 such men were out of use which he thinks came by the negligence or rather pride of some Doctors who thought it was beneath them to be esteemed the lesse in the church as S. Paul saith of them while they are to decide controversies not as judges invested with a coercive power but only as arbitrators and umpires But the true cause why these elders ceased which he wisheth had been still continued he mentioneth not but the true cause is when the magistrate that was for above 300. years heathenish became Christian these arbitrators and elders ceased in great part at least they were more out of churches then in churches and in stead of them the Emperours created judges which yet retained much of the nature of those whereof Origen and Ambrose speak and which were invested as most of the Lawyers affirm as Cujacius for one with them my Rev. Father in his book de Monarchia temporal and in his Hyperaspistes lib. 3. cap. 15. not with a coercive jurisdiction but as they term it audience hence comes the Bishops and Deanes and Chapters Audit However such arbitrators sate in a court and were chosen by the Christian Emperours and were not members as before ever since St. Pauls time chosen by the members of that church where the contention did arise betwixt brother and brother and at that time it was not thought a violation of the command of St. Paul if a wronged brother had gone to secular judges because they were not infidels but Christians faithfull and saints as the Apostle termeth them 1 Cor. 6. 2. therefore it was free for any lay-man or other either to repair to the Audit of the Bishop or to the secular judge Which custome Ambrose doth not like so well as when Jewes and Christians were obliged by the law of their discipline to have controversies decided by their own elders Certain it is that these elders though they were not as Ambrose wisht they had been in his time arbitrators in those churches whereof they were members kept that office a long time under Christian Emperours but with more authority and dignity because they were countenanced by the Emperours their masters We have them mentioned pretty late even in Theodosius Honorius and Arcadius time for in one law they enjoin that ordinary judges should decide the contentions between Jewes and Gentils not their own elders or arbitrators Thereupon it is worth considering that that title which in the Theodosian Code is de Episcopali audientia in the Justinian Code is de Episcopali judicio a main proof that these judgements in episcopall courts had much still of the nature of those references in churches under the heathen Emperours These episcopall courts were set up by the Emperours to favour the clergy that they might be judged in prima instantia by their own judges for if either party had not stood to the sentence of that court they might appeal to the secular court The words of the 28. Canon of the councell of Chalcedon are very expresse If a clerk hath a matter against a clerk let him not leave his Bishop and appeal to secular judgement but let the cause first be judged by his own Bishop Now this episcopall court being in substance the same power with that of the elders mentioned by Ambrose which were first in synagogues and then in Christian churches under the heathen Emperours one may plainly see how weak and sandy the grounds are upon which ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing in the hands of church-officers is built which government say they is the government of Christ and is to be managed by those church-officers by a warrant from Christ the mediatour For Constantine erecting an episcopall court and empowering the judges of the court to decide causes and controversies did not intend to give them a commission of binding and loosing or to put into their hands the keyes of Heaven so delegating a power which was none of his to give but only granted what was in his own power namely that some magistrates under him should set all things in order in the church and among the clergy Besides he intended to set up that magistracy which was through the necessity of the times assumed first by synagogues then by Christian churches under persecution for sure Constantine did not place the power of the keyes of binding and loosing in the exercise of that power managed either by the elders which Ambrose mentioneth or by the episcopall court erected by himself Neither Constantine nor any of his successours did ever conceive that churches were to be governed by any other power then their own as all other societies of men were In this episcopall court any cause between man and man