Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	church_n	emperor_n	king_n	2,169	5	3.7645	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42763	CXI propositions concerning the ministerie and government of the Church	Gillespie, George, 1613-1648.	1647 (1647)	Wing G752; ESTC R21587	30,033	52

had for besides that it would be a great inconvenience that plaintifes persons accused and witnesses bee drawne from the most remote Churches to the generall or universall Councell the visible communion it self of all the Churches on which the universal Counsel is built and whereupon as on a foundation it leaneth is not so much of company fellowship or conversation as of Religion and Doctrine All true Churches of the World doe indeed professe the same true Religion and faith but there is beside this a certaine commixture and conjunction of the Churches of the same Nation as to a more near fellowship and some acquaintance conversing and companying together which cannot be said of all the Churches throughout the habitable World 38. And for this cause as in doctrinall controversies which are handled by Theologues and Casuists and in those which belong to the common State of the orthodoxe Churches the Nationall Synode is subo dinate and subjected to the universall lawfully constituted Synode and from the Nationall to the Oecumenicall Synode when there is a just and weighty cause an appeal is open So there is no need that the appeals of them who complaine of injurie done to them through the exercise of Discipline in this or that Church should goe beyond the bounds of the Nationall Synode But t is most agreeable to reason that they should rest and acquiesce within those bounds and borders And that the ultimate judgement of such matters bee in the Nationall Synode unlesse the thing it selfe be so hard and of so great moment that the knot be justly thought worthy of a greater decider In which case the controversie which is carried to the universall Synode is rather of an abstract generall Theologicall proposition then of the particular or individuall case 39. Furthermore the Administration of the Ecclesiastick power in Consistories Classes and Synodes doth not at all tend to weaken in any wise hurt or minish the authority of the civil Magistrate much lesse to take it away or destroy it yea rather by it a most profitable help cometh to the Magistrate forasmuch as by the bond of Religion mens consciences are more straitly tyed unto him There hath been indeed phantasticall men who under pretence and cloak of Christian liberty would abolish and cast out Lawes and Judgements Orders also Degrees and Honours out of the commonwealth and have been bold to reckon the function of the Magistrate armed with the sword among evill things and unlawfull But the Reformed Churches doe renounce and detest those dreames and do most harmoniously and most-willingly confesse and acknowledge it to be Gods will that the World bee governed by Lawes and Policy and that hee himself hath appointed the civill Magistrate and hath delivered to him the sword to the protection and praise of good men but for punishment and revenge on the evill that by this bridle mens vices and faults may be restrained whether committed against the first or against the second Table 40. The Reformed Churches beleeve also and openly confesse the power and authority of Emperours over their Empires of Kings over their Kingdomes of Princes and Dukes over their Dominions and of other Magistrates or States over their Commonwealths and Cities to be the Ordinances of God himself appointed as well to the manifestation of his owne glory as to the singular profit of mankinde And withall that by reason of the will of God himself revealed in his Word wee must not onely suffer and be content that those doe rule which are set over their own territories whether by hereditary or by elective right but also to love them fear them and with all reverenee and honour imbrace them as the Ambassadours and Ministers of the most high and good God being in his stead and preferred for the good of their Subjects to powre out Prayers for them to pay tributes to them and in all businesse of the Commonwealth which are not against the Word of God to obey their lawes and edicts 41. The orthodoxe Churches beleeve also and doe willingly acknowledge that every lawfull Magistrate being by God himself constituted the keeper and defender of both Tables of the Law may and ought first and chiefly to take care of Gods glory and according to his place or in his manner and way to preserve Religion when pure and to restore it when decayed and corrupted And also to provide a learned and Godly Ministery Schools also and Synodes as likewise to restraine and punish as well Atheists Blasphemers Hereticks and Schismaticks as the violaters of Justice and Civill Peace 42. Wherefore the opinion of those Sectaries of this age is altogether to be disallowed who though otherwise insinuating themselves craftily into the Magistrates favour doe deny unto him the authority and right of restraining Hereticks and Schismaticks and do hold and maintaine that such persons how much soever hurtfull and pernicious enemies to true Religion and to the Church yet are to bee tolerated by the Magistrate if so bee he conceive them to bee such as no way violate the Laws of the Commonwealth and in no wise disturbe the civill Peace 43. Yet the civill Power and the Ecclesiasticall ought not by any meanes to be confounded or mixed together Both powers are indeed from God and ordained for his Glory and both to be guided by his Word and both are comprehended under that precept Honour thy father and thy mother So that men ought to obey both civill Magistrates and Ecclesiasticall governours in the Lord To both powers their proper dignity and authority is to be maintained and preserved in force To both also is some way entrusted the keeping of both Tables of the Law also both the one and the other doth exercise some jurisdiction and giveth sentence of judgement in an externall court or judicatory But these and other things of like sort in which they agree notwithstanding yet by marvellous vaste differences are they distinguished the one from the other and the rights of both remaine distinct and that eight manner of wayes which it shall not bee amisse here to adde that unto each of these Administrations its own set bounds may bee the better maintained 44. First of all therefore they are differenced the one from the other in respect of the very foundation and the institution For the politicall or civill power is grounded upon the Law of nature it selfe and for that cause it is common to Infidels with Christians The power Ecclesiasticall dependeth immediatly upon the positive Law of Christ alone that beer longeth to the Universall Dominion of God the Creator oveall Nations but this unto the speciall and Oeconomicall King dome of Christ the Mediator which hee exerciseth in the Church alone and which is not of this World 45. The second differences in the object or matter about which The power politick or civill is occupied about the outward man and civill or earthly things about Warre Peace conservation of Justice and good order in the Commonwealth

Ministers and Schools and supplieth the temporall necessities of Gods Servants by his command assembleth Synodes when there is need of them and summoneth calleth out and drawes to triall the unwilling which without the Magistrates strength and authority cannot be done as hath been alreadie said he maketh Synodes also safe and secure and in a civill way presideth or moderateth in them if it so seem good to him either by himself or by a substitute Commissioner In all which the power of the Magistrate though occupied about spirituall things is not for all that spirituall but civill 66. Fourthly they differ in the end The immediate nearest end of civill power is that the good of the Commonwealth may bee provided for and procured whether it be in time of Peace according to the rules of Law and counsell of Judges or in time of Warre according to the rules of Militarie prudence and so the temporall safety of the Subjects may bee procured and that externall Peace and civill Liberty may bee preserved and being lost may be againe restored 67. But the chiefest and last end of civill Government is the glory of God the Creator namely that those which do evil being by a superiour Power restrained or punished those which doe good getting praise of the same the Subjects so much the more may shun impiety and injustice and that Vertue Justice and the Morall Law of God as touching those eternall dueties of both Tables unto which all the posterity of Adam are oblieged may remain in strength and flourish 68. But whereas the Christian Magistrate doth wholly devote himself to the promoting of the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ and doth direct and bend all the might and strength of his authority to that end This proceedeth not from the nature of his office or function which is common to him with an Infidell Magistrate but from the influence of his common Christian calling into his particular vocation 69. For every member of the Church and so also the faithfull and godly Magistrate ought to referre and order his particular vocation faculty ability power and honour to this end that the Kingdome of Christ may bee propagated and promoted and the true Religion bee cherished and defended So that the advancement of the Gospel and of all the Ordinances of the Gospel is indeed the end of the Godly Magistrate not of a Magistrate simply or if yee will rather t is not the end of the office it self but of him who doth execute the same piously 70. But the end of Ecclesiasticall power yea the end as well of the Ministery it self as of the Godly Minister is that the Kingdome of Christ may bee set forward that the pathes of the Lord bee made straight that his holy mysteries may bee kept pure that stumbling-blocks may bee removed out of the Church lest a little leaven leaven the whole lump or lest one sick or scabbed sheep infect the whole flock that the faithfull may so walk as it becometh the Gospel of Christ and that the wandering sheep of Christ may be converted and brought back to the sheepfold 71. And seeing this power is given of the Lord not to destruction but to edification Therefore this same scope is propounded in Excommunication which is the greatest and last of Ecclesiasticall censures namely that the soul of an offending brother may be gained to Christ and that being stricken with fear and the stubborne sinner filled with shame may by the grace of God be humbled and may as a brand plucked out of the fire bee snatched out of the snare of the devill and may repent unto salvation at least the rest may turne away from those which are branded with such a censure lest the soul infection do creep and spread further 72. Fifthly they are distinguished by the effect The effect of civill power is either proper or by way of redundance The proper effect is the safety temporall of the Common-wealth externall tranquillity the fruition of civill Liberty and of all things which are necessary to the civill Society of men The effect by way of redundance is the good of the Church to wit in so far as by execution of Justice and good Lawes some impediments that usually hinder and disturbe the course of the Gospel are avoided or taken away 73. For by how much the more faithfully the Magistrate executeth his office in punishing the wicked and cherishing and encouraging good men taking away those things which withstand the Gospel and punishing or driving away the troublers and subverters of the Church so much the more the orthodox Faith and Godlinesse are reverenced and had in estimation sinnes are hated and feared Finally all the subjects contained as much as concerneth the outward man within the lists of Gods Law whence also by consequence it happeneth by Gods blessing that the Church is defiled with fewer scandals and doth obtaine the more freedome and Peace 74. But the proper effect of the Ecclesiasticall power or keyes of the Kingdome of heaven is wholly spirituall for the act of binding and loosing of retaining and remitting sins doth reach to the soul and conscience it self which cannot be said of the act of the civill power And as unjust Excommunication is void So Ecclesiasticall censure being inflicted by the Ministers of Christ and his Stewards according to his will is ratified in heaven Matth. 18. 18. and therefore ought to be esteemed and acknowledged in like manner as inflicted by Christ himself 75. Sixthly they are also differenced in respect of the subject The politick power is committed sometimes to one sometimes to more sometime by right of election sometime by right of succession But the Ecclesiasticall power is competent to none under the New Testament by the right of succession but he who hath it must be called by God and the Church to it neither was it given by Christ to one either Pastor or Elder much lesse to a Prelate but to the Church that is to the consistory of Presbyters T is confessed indeed and who can bee ignorant of it that the power as they call it of order doth belong to particular Ministers and is by each of them apart lawfully exercised But that power which is commonly called of jurisdiction is committed not to one but to the unity that is to a consistory therefore Ecclesiasticall censure ought not to be inflicted but by many 2 Cor. 2. 6. 76. Seventhly they differ as touching the correlative God hath commanded that unto the civill power every soul or all Members of the Commonwealth of what condition and estate soever be subject for what have wee to doe with the Papists who will have them whom they call the Clergy or Ecclesiasticall persons to bee free from the yoke of the civill Magistrate The Ecclesiasticall power extends it self to none other subjects then unto those which are called Brethren or Members of the Church 77. Eighthly there remaineth another difference in respect of the distinct and