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
A86000	A form for Church government and ordination of ministers, contained in CXI propositions, propounded to the late Generall Assembly at Edinburgh, 1647. Together with an Act concerning Erastianisme, independencie, and liberty of conscience. Published by authority.; CXI propositions concerning the ministerie and government of the Church.	Gillespie, George, 1613-1648.	1647 (1647)	Wing G749; Thomason E418_3; ESTC R202292	30,071	51

faith or of the most hard and unusuall cases of Conscience Of the controversies of fact there is another and different consideration to be had for besides that it would be a great inconvenience that plaintifes persons accused and witnesses be drawne from the most remote Churches to the generall or universall Counsell the visible communion it selfe 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 converting and companying together which cannot be said of all the Churches thorowout 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 orthodox Churches the Nationall Synod is subordinate and subjected to the Universall lawfully constituted Synod and from the Nationall to the Occumenicall Synod when there is a just and weighty cause an appeal is open So there is no need that the Appeals of them who complain of injury done to them through the exercise of Discipline in this or that Church should goe beyond the bounds of the Nationall Synod 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 be in the Nationall Synod unlesse the thing it self 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 Synod is rather of an abstract general Theologicall Proposition then of the particular or individuall Case 39. Furthermore the Administration of the Ecclesiastick power in Consistories Classes and Synods doth not at all tend to weaken in any wise hurt or minish the authority of the Civill 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 have 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 Common-wealth 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 dreams and do most harmoniously and most willingly confesse and acknowledge it to be Gods will that the World be governed by Lawes and Plicy 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 believe also and openly confesse the power and authority of Emperours over their Empires of Kings over their Kingdoms of Princes and Dukes over their Dominions and of other Magistrates or States over their Common-wealths 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 reverence and honour embrace 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 businesses of the Common-wealth which are not against the Word of God to obey their Laws and Edicts 41. The Orthodox Churches believe also and do 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 cecayed and corrupted And also to provide a learned and Godly Ministry Schools also and Synods as likewise to restrain 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 denie unto him the authority and right of restraining Hereticks and Schismaticks and doe hold and maintain that such persons how much soever hurtfull and pernicious enemies to true Religion and to the Church yet are to be tolerated by the Magistrate if so be hee conceive them to be such as no way violate the Lawes of the Commonwealth and in no wise disturb the civill Peace 43. Yet the civill Power and the ecclesiasticall ought not by any means 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 remain distinct and that eight manner of wayes which it shall not be amisse here to adde that unto each of these Administrations its own set bounds may be 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 belongeth to the Universall Dominion of God the creator over all Nations but this unto the speciall and Occonomicall Kingdom of Christ the Mediator which he exerciseth in the church alone and which is not of this World 45. The second difference is in the object or matter about which The power politick or civill

his territory restraineth or expelleth the insolent and untamed disturbers of the Church 65. He taketh care also for maintaining the Ministers and Schools and supplyeth the temporall necessities of Gods Servants by his command assembleth Synods when there is need of them and summoneth calleth out and draws to tryall the unwilling which without the Magistrates strength and authority cannot be done as hath bin already said he maketh Synods also safe and secure and in a civil 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 spiritual but civill 66. Fourthly they differ in the end The immediate nearest end of civil power is that the good of the Common-wealth may be provided for and procured whether it be in time of Peace according to the rules of Law and counsel of Judges or in time of War according to the rules of Military prudence and so the temporall safety of the Subjects may be procured and that external Peace and civil Liberty may be preserved and being lost may be again 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 superior power restrained or punished and those which do 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 eternal duties of both Tables unto which all the posterity of Adam are obliged 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 and 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 faithful and godly Magistrate ought to referr and order his particular vocation faculty ability power and honour to this end that the Kingdom of Christ may be propagated and promoted and the true Religion be cherished and defended So that the advancement of the Gospell and of all the Ordinances of the Gospell is indeed the end of the godly Magistrate not of a Magistrate simply or if ye 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 Ecclesiastical power yea the end as well of the Ministry it self as of the godly Minister is that the Kingdom of Christ may be set forward that the pathes of the Lord be made straight that his holy mysteries may be kept pure that stumbling-blocks may be removed out of the Church least a little leaven leaven the whole lump or least one sick or scabbed sheep infect the whole flock that the faithfull may so walk as it becometh the Gospell of Christ and that the wandring sheep of Christ may be converted and brought back to the sheep-Fold 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 Ecclesiastical censures namely that the soul of an offending brother may be gained to Christ and that being stricken with fear and the stubborn sinner filled with shame may by the grace of God be humbled and may as a brand plucked out of the fire be snatched out of the snare of the Devill and may repent unto salvation at least the rest may turn away from those which are branded with such a censure least the soul infection do creep and spread further 72. Fiftly they are distinguished by the effect The effect of civil power is either proper or by way of redundance The proper effect is the safety temporal of the Common-wealth externall tranquillity the fruition of civil Liberty and of all things which are necessary to the civil 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 Laws some impediments that usually hinder and disturb 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 Gospell and punishing or driving away the troublers and subverters of the Church so much the more the orthodox Faith and Godlyness are reverenced and had in estimation sins are hated and feared Finally and all the subjects contained as much as concerneth the outward man within the lists of Gods Law Whence also by consequence in happeneth by Gods blessing that the Church is desiled with fewer scandalls and doth obtain the more freedom and Peace 74. But the proper effect of the Ecclesiasticall power or keys of the Kingdom 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 Mat. 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 less to a Prelate but to the Church that is to the consistory of Presbyters 'T is confessed indeed and who can be 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 civil power every soul or all Members of the Common-wealth of what condition and estate soever be subiect for what have we to do with the Papists who wil have them whom they call the Clergy or Ecclesiasticall persons to be free from the yoke of the civill Magistrate The Ecclesiasticall power extends it self to none other subiects then unto those