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A40050 Four grand questions proposed, and briefly answered wherein is discoursed, the authority and duty of the magistrate in the matters of religion, the unlawfulness of a toleration and general liberty of conscience, the divine right of Christian liberty in things indifferent, the unlawfulness of repealing the laws against Popery and idolatry. 1689 (1689) Wing F1655; ESTC R20387 25,185 33

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people made a Law That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death 2 Chron. 15. 13. And these are approv'd for so doing whereas those Kings that took no care of Religion but did either set up Idolatry or did not suppress it are branded for such as did evil in the sight of the Lord. Object But it will be objected That what the Magistrate thus did under the Old Testament for the Cause of Religion was but the Execution of God's own Laws which he was obliged to do but that this is no Precedent for Christian Magistrates under the Gospel because those Laws are now abrogated and there are no new Laws prescribed by God under the Gospel for the inflicting of any punishments either pecuniary or corporal for any Offences against Religion and therefore the Magistrate hath no Authority to make Penal Laws for this end Answ Tho' it be granted That the Gospel prescribes no punishments for Offences against Religion and that the Judicial Law also as it was peculiar to that Nation so is not precisely binding on any Nation under the Gospel yet it will not therefore follow that Magistrates may not make Penal Laws for Offences against Religion for then upon that ground he may not make Laws for Offences against Second-Table-Commands as Murther Adultery Th●ft c. for the New Testament doth not prescribe any And therefore on this account some have been so wild to think that no corporal punishments should be inflicted under the Gospel by Christian men But 't is generally agreed by all That the natural and moral part of the Law of Moses to wit that which is founded on Reason and Moral Justice is still obligatory on all Nations and 't is certain that a great part of the Judicial Law is but an Exposition and Enforcement of the natural and moral Law of God Hence most of the Penalties inflicted by that Law for Offences against any of the Precepts of the moral Law we may find that the reason and ground of the Penalty may in many things be drawn from the moral nature of the Crime as well as from the Will of God prescribing the kind of Penalty Now it cannot be denied that where the reason and ground of the Penalty for such and such Offences is natural and moral there those Penal Laws are so far still in force that they remain on Record both as Precedents and Engagements on all Nations to make Laws in conformity to them And surely where we cannot so clearly see the reason of the penalty yet where the Offence against the Law of God is the same there the Will of God imposing penalties for such and such Offences against his Law is the best Rule and Pattern for the Laws of all Magistrates in the world Now If the Abolition of the Jeuish Pedagogy and their Civil State for which these Penal Laws were more peculiarly adapted doth not null the power of the Christian Magistrate to make Penal Laws for the Violation of Second-Table-Commands as for Murther Wheredom Theft c. Why should it any more null his power to make Penal Laws for the Violation of First-Table-Commands as for Idolatry Superstition Blasphemy c. for the First-Table-Commands have still the precedent Obligation to the Second and the Violation of them have the same moral Obliquity and Guilt as under the Law Therefore Laws to punish those Sins have the same Reason and moral Justice in them as the other Hence it will follow that Magistrates are under equal Obligations to impose such Laws as the other Object But it will be further objected That Jesus Christ hath only appointed under the Gospel the Ministry of the word which is the Spiritual Sword for the propagating and maintaining the Christian Religion And Men are invited to believe and embrace this Religion upon free Choice and Election and upon principles of pure Conviction and Conscience and not compelled or forced to it by the power of the Sword and that 't is not agreeable to the Gospel Dispensation that the Christian Religion should be promoted by a Temporal power or men punished for disobedience to it Answ For answer this mistake of denying the Authority of the Civil Magistrate in the matters of Religion comes to pass by not distinguishing between those two distinct Offices viz. of the Ministry and of the Magistracy which are Offices of a different Order that have each their peculiar Properties and Imployments tho' both to the great and general end of the Glory of God and also the Good of the Church The Ministerial Office is properly founded on Christs Commission as Mediator of the Church to whom are committed the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven both of Doctrin and of Discipline but the Office of the Magistracy is of another Order and founded on God's Law as he is Rector of the World to whom is committed the Sword of Justice and that not only between man and man but between God and man. Magistracy therefore is not properly a Gospel but a moral Institution Now as the Gospel doth not abrogate but on the contrary doth establish the Obligations of the moral Law Rom. 3. 13. so by consequence it doth not null either the Office or any part of the moral Duty of the Office of Magistracy but on the contrary doth ratifie and confirm it as it doth all other matters of moral Duty and Religion 'T is true also that our Saviour only appointed the Ministry of the Word for the propagation of the Gospel for he came into the world in the quality of a Prophet and Minister and so propagated his Religion and in that Capacity commissionated and sent forth his Apostles and Gospel-Ministers He did not intermeddle with the Office of the Magistracy but left that to stand on its own bottom as founded on the Law and Ordinance of God for tho' he were a King yet his Kingdom were spiritual and not of this world and therefore as he took not the power of the Temporal Sword himself as he might have done upon Divine Right so he gave no such power to any of the Ministerial Order And we find also that God Almighty in whose power are the Hearts of Kings and Magistrates did not use their Power and Authority for the promotion and advancement of the Christian Religion at the first which he might have done by effectually calling and converting them by his Grace as well as others and so inclining their Hearts to improve their Power and Office for his Glory as was their Duty to do but he did not and that no doubt in great wisdom that so the Gospel being propagated by such weak and contemptible Instruments as the Apostles were without the concurrence of the Civil Power yea and against such great opposition from them might be given to the world one of the most convincing Evidences that could be of the truth of the Christian Religion But it doth not follow thence but that it was