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
themselves with a power and jurisdiction improperly so called leaving to the magistrate the opposite member of power properly so called which is a silent confession that they have none at all since they can yet find no name for it I have one division more of ecclesiasticall power brought by Amyraldus and some others quite different from the rest being not a dichotomie but a trichotomie not a division into two but three coordinate powers the one belonging to the magistrate the second to lay-elders and deputies of the church and the third appertaining to ministers These three ecclesiasticall powers he maketh to be conspicuous in all ecclesiasticall assemblies and synods where the magistrate hath his ecclesiasticall indirect extrinsecall power as they call it the ministers have their intrinâ—…call direct ecclesiasticall power and the lay-elders have a lesse intrinsecall direct ecclesiasticall power for it hath not found a name yet for it is say they neither of the nature of ecclesiasticall power belonging to the magistrate nor of that which is proper to ministers but a mungrell ecclesiasticall power in regard they cannot perform by their power those acts that belong either to magistracy or ministery For besides that they cannot preach and administer the Sacraments Amyraldus will not allow them any voice but consultative not deliberative and only in matters of discipline and ecclesiasticall policy and that power they say they have common with the magistrate who over and above hath his ecclesiasticall power which neither the ministers nor lay-elders have any thing to do with Lastly the ministers have their ecclesiasticall power distinct from the ecclesiasticall power of both The bare relating of these divisions of power and modifications of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is sufficient to confute them so that there is little need of authority to witnesse their nullity and vanity Yet three grave and learned divines namely Martyr Musculus and Gualterus would have the name and the thing to be abolished Martyr loc com 13. class 4. § 9. sheweth the little need of multiplying powers whenas that of the magistrate is sufficient and that David Salomon Iosias being civil magistrates did think that religion belonged to their care and Constantinus Theodosius Iustinianus had no greater thought then to constitute the true church of God Musculus is yet more pregnant loc com de magistratibus what hinders I pray but that this may be ecclesiasticall which is done neither by the church it self nor in the name and by the power of the church but is done commanded and enjoyned by the magistrate within the church in the name and power of God and to procure the good of the church and represse the evils committed in the church A little lower he hath these expresse and golden words the way and nature of government cannot bear that in the same people there be two authentick powers two diverse legislations and dominations except it be by subordination as there is no place for two heads in one body Gualterus Homil. in 1 Cor. 5. is no lesse expresse They distinguish betwixt ecclesiasticall and politicall jurisdiction but this distinction is taken out of the shop of the papists for it is not to be had in the Scripture for it is plain that the same way must be observed in the New as in the old Testament And a little lower The same then must be observed in the new Testament and no need there is that the ministers of the word should have a peculiar senate taking upon them what belongeth to the magistrate they may be censors of manners such as are needfull in a greater commonwealth where ordinary magistrates cannot attend all businesses but these are created by the magistrates authority and ought to do all by his command and not ly a peculiar power of their own distinct from that of the magistrate Such passages and many more I alledge in my Paraenesis p. 16. and 17. No marvell if those that recede from the plainnesse of the Scripture have knit themselves such nets and windings of powers in which while they think to be safeâ— they lose themselves With the help of those distinctions and divisions of power M. Gillespie stretcheth and shortneth his ecclesiasticall power as a leathern point sometimes lengthening it so far as that the magistrate may take hold of it by one end and sometimes giving both ends and the middle into the hands of the ministers I will alledge one or two more places out of Mr. Gillespies book by which his art will appear in extending and contracting his ecclesiasticall power one while making the magistrates and ministers to share the power between them another while giving to either all or nothing Pag. 263. speaking of the extent of the ecclesiasticall power of the magistrate he is usefull saith he and helpfull to the Kingdom of Christ the mediatour magistracy being serviceable to purge the church of scandall to promote the course of the Gospell and the edification of one another But how not perfectly but protanto not every way but more suo not intrinsecally but extrinsecally not primarily but secondarily not directly but ex consequentâ— not sub formalitate scandali but sub formalitate criminis or not under the notion of scandall but of crime I alledge this not to confute it having elsewhere shewed the weaknesse and nullity of such divisions what a lame and impotent thing is eccleâ—asticall power that needeth so many woodden legs and crutches But I pray doth not the magistrate punish blasphemy as a scandall and a contagious offence communicative to others Pag. 264. The coercive part in compelling the obstinate and unruly to submit to the presbyteriall and synodicall sentence belongs to the magistrate not as if the magistrate had nothing to do but to be an executioner of the pleasure of church officers or as if he were by a blind and implicite faith to constrain all men to stand to their determination God forbid The magistrate must have his full liberty to judge of that which he is to compell men to do to judge of it not only judicio apprehensivo by understanding and apprehending aright what it is but judicio discretivo by the judgement of Christian prudence and discretion examining by the word of God the grounds reasons and warrants of the thing that he may in faith and not doubtingly adde his authority thereto in which judging he doth judicare not judicem agere that is he is judex suarum actionum he 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 Whoever examineth narrowly the extent of power which he yields to belong to the magistrate will soon discover that all the ecclesiasticall power is to be managed by the magistrate 1. He maketh all synodicall or presbyterian power to be of no force without a coercive power 2. that the magistrate must have his full liberty to judge of
can have no judicatorie or judgement 2. I never denied the two courts distinctly set down Rom. 13. one is the power of the magistrate to which we are subject for wrath the other that to which we are subject for conscience sake In this latter God hath set up a tribunall wherein the conscience passeth sentence either of condemnation or of absolution The sentences passed in these two courts have no conflict which cannot be said of the sentences passed in presbyteries which many times are opposed and reversed by the magistrate but the magistrates condemning is no hinderance to the conscience from passing a sentence of absolution either for the fact committed or for other sins 3. Neither is the minister a judge whether the condemned person is penitent or no but the conscience of the man is which more properly is the judge that absolveth or condemneth only the minister furnisheth evidences helping the man to plead guilty or not guilty 4. The pastor comforting or rowzing up the prisoner doth discharge the part of a messenger and not the part of a judge in a court for he is no judge of a man who leaveth him to the judgement of another as doth the minister 5. The nature of a court is not to condemn upon supposition that the prisoner knoweth himself guilty but absolutely to condemn that person whom the judge and jury have a particular knowledge to be guilty and such is the nature of the court of conscience when it justifieth only where it knoweth it self clear and condemneth where it is conscious of its guiltinesse But no pastour hath a particular knowledge of any persons evidences for heaven but what he gathereth by outward signes and so all acts of his either of absolution or of condemnation are meerly upon supposition and no acts of a judge and therefore no acts of a court In short both a court of magistrates and a court of conscience in absolving or condemning know what they do but the pastor knoweth not God only knowing it 6. The action of a pastour absolving is no act of court but an act of the same nature with the preaching of the Gospell by which pardon is pronounced to all that truly repent and lay hold on Christ by faith 7. The party arraigned in a true court such is the court of the magistrate and that of conscience is dismissed clear or guilty as the judge of the court shall pronounce but none can be guilty or not guilty and stand or fall as the minister shall verbally pronounce there being here no concurrence of any act of his but that of the spirit in the word by his ministery 8. This arraigned person who is necessitated to under go the sentence of the magistrate either for absolution or condemnation hath no such necessity to go to the church or pastour except he hath personally offended some of them or oweth them mony in which case his reconciliation is no appearance in any court only a brother or a creditour may pardon him his debt or offence that is pray God to forgive him Here there is no footstep of jurisdiction of either party on the other but in case the party arraigned seeks to be reconciled to God none being able to make his peace with God but God himself nor to declare peace but the testimony of his conscience the pastour may help to clear his evidences and so may any godly gifted brother and well read in the Scripture but neither of them properly judgeth him or maketh his peace neither is here any jurisdiction 9. The nature of a court is to have power and jurisdiction over those that are unwilling as Jesus Christ saith to St. Peter Were it free for a thref to appear or not appear before the court and go to prison or to the gellows if he listed such a coure were a name and not a thing but we pastor 〈◊〉 in no court that hath power over the prisoner except he be perswaded to call him or to admit him and be convinced by him for if be let the minister alone the minister â—…th neither power nor court to convene him to 10. What he saith that the magistrate cannot take exceptions that the Consistory absolâ—… whom the magistrate condemneth as if it would not concerne the magistrate to take an account of the fact of the minister in absolving 〈◊〉 prisoner and as if the pastour were not â—…ged to give an account of it to him may be questioned for the magistrate is bound to take â—…re that his prisoner make his peace with God before he die and to use all means towards it to that end he must appoint ministers and if they will not be employed about that work or in case they do it amisse I say he may interpose his power and authority and so say most of the Divines that if the minister do not discharge his place in all its functions and acts that the magistrate ought to enjoyn him to do it And thus far the externall acts of the minister visiting the prisoners and comforting them are subordinate to the jurisdiction of the magistrate 11. What he also saith that the magistrates office doth not extend to the care of souls may likewise be questioned for the contrary is proved by Scripture and the authority of most Fathers and Divines St. Austin against Cresconius lib. 5. cap. 51. saith that Kings are Gods ministers not only in things that pertain to humane society but also to Divine religion Rivetus on the decalogue saith that the â—esser care of the magistrate is the administration of the Common-wealthâ— but the first and chief care is the government of the church How can the magistrates be nursing fathers keâ—…ers of both tables bound to reform settle and preserve the true religion and promote the interest of Jesus Christ as magistrates except they ayme at the saving of souls But though the office of the magistrate should not extend to the care of souls yet this doth not conclude a church-judicature distinct from that of the magistrate for neither doth the magistrate meddle with the physitians office in curing diseases or look to the health of horses and other cattle every office hath its severall care but not its severall jurisdiction 12. This may be also questioned that the Consistory is not to meddle with the sentence of the magistrate for if he cleareth the nocent and condemneth the innocent he hath as much to do with him as with the poorest wretch condemned to die he must tell him as John told Herod it is not lawfull for thee to do that and cry abomination to him There is no action of the magistrate no sentence or judgement of his wherein there is either right or wrong but falls within the cognizance and reprehension of the minister 13. Briefly in the case propounded there is not the least footstep of jurisdiction or court no citing no witnesses no plaintiff no defendant sentence condemnation absolution sergeant gaole executioner all conditions
constitutions that are made about them are acts of the major part of the members are valid not because they are lawes of Christ and approved to every ones conscience but because like lawes and orders of other societies they do oblige as such and as consented unto in the making of them by the major part of the members though it may be the minor part were in the right for as the acts of a magistrate commanding things directly commanded by God are the magistrates acts so those acts performed in a particular church though commanded expressely by God in as much as they require externall obedience either actively or passively are acts of that magistracy set up in that church I find in a result of a synod in New-England printed at the end of the book of Mr. Cotton of the Covenant of Grace some conclusions wholly consonant to what I now write in this chapter of the two kinds of acts that are performed in every particular church the one done by them as church-members the other being an effect of magistracy set up in every particular church considered not as a church but as a society The first kind of acts is proper to those church-members who by any power of magistacy are not put upon stronger engagements of oredience then if there had never been any The second is exercised by magistracy either in the church or out of the church against the obstinate and unruly and such as need to be compelled I find the synod speak much to that purpose namely p. 40. the collectour saith from them that for remedying disorders and taking away or preventing grosse errors there must be a power of restraint and coercion used and in regard that every particular church is to be as well considered in the quality of a civil society as a society of church-members CHAPTER XX. That the power attributed to private churches by the reverend dissenting brethren doth very well accord with the power of magistracy in matters of religion as it is held by Erastus Bullingerus Musculus Grotius Mr. Selden and Mr. Coleman This same is proved by reason and by the testimony of Mr. Burroughs writing the sense of all his brethren as also by the practise of the churches in New-England WHen at first I undertook to write of this subject I had no other designe but to assert the nullity of a double externall jurisdiction and to prove that there being no such thing neither in Scripture nor reason as an ecclesiasticall power all jurisdiction that was not united under and appertained not to the magistrate was not a power of coercion was no jurisdiction Neither was I then lesse dissenting from the church-way and power retained by the rever brethren of the congregation then from the presbyterian brethren and the rather because I saw both parties carried with as much eagernesse of opposition against Erastus and Mr. Coleman as they were among themselves besides not fancying to my self otherwise but that all jurisdiction called ecclesiasticall and assumed by whatsoever society of men either single or made up by the aggregation of many societies which was not subordinate to the magistrates power was alike against reason and Scripture But being not able to study my main matter intended without enquiring into the nature of the power that both parties assumed to themselves I found that the tenets of the brethren of the congregationall way could very well accord with mine and which was not yet by any considered that the right of particular churches as the dissenting brethren hold might very well consist with that measure of power that Erastus Bullingerus Musculus Gualterus Grotius Mr. Selden Mr. Coleman allowed to the magistrate in matters of religion and over churches and that independency of private churches I mean independency from presbyterian classicall and synodicall judicatories doth no way hinder their right and liberty nor their dependency on the magistrate nor cutteth short the magistrate of the soveraign power he ought to have overall societies and persons and in all causes and matters Lastly I found that this way of reconciliation was most agreeable with Scripture reason the practise of the Jewes and of the primitive church of Christians besides was confessed so by many learned men who though seemingly otherwise affected and carried by more heat then knowledge of what was passed or held in this Island have notwithstanding in their tracts about the power of churches and discipline laid the same grounds that the dissenting brethren have delivered I need not be very long in proving by reason that this reconciliation betwixt the advocates of the magistrates power in matters of religion and those that plead for the right of churches is already made to our hands by what I have already handled I adde further these following considerations 1. Since every private church hath within it self a power of magistracy and that all magistracy in whatever society it be seated is subordinate to the magistrate of those societies it doth consequently follow that that magistracy wherewith every private church is invested is also subordinate to the magistrate for as I have demonstrated since no society of church-members no more then of citizens merchants physicians and the like can be imagined without lawes discipline and power of restraint and coercion so neither can it be imagined that such a power is not dependent on the magistrate for if a member of a society be obstinate and refractory and will not be ruled but by coercion and compulsion it be more then church-members as such can do to reduce him by exhortation and good advice then church-members must act also by a power of magistracy either assumed or delegated however it be that power of magistracy is subordinate to the soveraign magistrate 2. It is a maxime in Scripture Philosophie and common reason that theorems or propositions that are true asunder are no way contradictory one to another Now these two following propositions are of an undeniable truth viz. The magistrate is a soveraign governour over all persons and societies and in all matters and causes whether they pertain to religion or no and this Every particular church hath a right and power to govern it self without any dependence either on other churches or church-judicatories Each of these propositions being considered as true asunder must also be very consistent and no way clashing one with the other 3. That the right of churches may well stand with the power of the magistrate may appear by example of many societies as families corporations halls whose intrinsecall power of magistracy agreeth exceeding well with that of the magistrate over them for none doubteth but every father of a family hath a power to govern his children houshold and servants as he listeth being in his own as it were house a magistrate and a Priest yet none hitherto questioned but that paternall and oeconomicall powers are subordinate to the power of the magistrate for even the civil law and so
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.
for succession is Romanish Ministers are no successours in their ministery to the Iudaicall Priests but to the Prophets 133 Chap. 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 142 Chap. XIV That the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing are not committed to all church-officers but to the ministers of the Gospell only 155 Chap. XV. That God hath not given to the church-officers of the Gospell a certain platform of government and that it is arbitrary and of humane institution and therefore not to be administred by a power distinct from the humane 161 Chap. XVI The 31. chapter of the confession made by the Rever Assembly examined The use of synods Two things are humbly represented first that for a re-union of jurisdictions over all persons and in all causes a convocation made up of ministers only be re-established during the sitting of Parliament the second is that ministers may be put into the same capacity as all other ranks of free-born people to sit and vote in Parliaments Of the power of synods and that of the magistrate in calling of them The synod of the Apostles was extraordinary not exemplary The exception of the brethren of Scotland against the 2. article of the 31. chapter of the confession examined The uses and abuses of synods that they are not the way to compose differences in matters of religion if their canons are beyond counsells and advices 166 Chap. XVII That the Iewish Church-officers had not a jurisdiction distinct from that of the magistrate Mr. Gillespies distinction that they were not materially but formally distinct examined The argument of Amyraldus that though they had a distinct jurisdiction yet the example of the church of the Iewes is no pattern to the Christian church discussed and proved to be of no validity 192 Chap. XVIII The cause of mistakes in stating the nature of the church and calling that the true church which is not Three acceptions of the word Church in holy writ The meaning of the word Church Matth. 18. v. 17. 206 Chap. XIX That a particular assembly of Christians meeting in one place about the worship of God is the only true visible church mentioned in Scripture That that church considered as an assembly of Christians bringeth forth other kinds of acts then it doth considered as a society of men by which the nature and extent of the power of a private church is made clear and evident 213 Chap. XX. That the power attributed to private churches by the reverend dissenting brethren doth very well accord with the power of magistracy in matters of religion as it is held by Erastus Bullingerus Musculus Grotius Mr. Selden and Mr. Coleman This same is proved by reason and by the testimony of Mr. Burroughs writing the sense of all his brethren as also by the practise of the churches in New-England 222 Chap. 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 234 Chap. 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 242 Chap. XXIII The consistency of the right and power of private churches with the magistrates power in ordering publick worship proved by the example of the Iewes that they had through all the land particular convocations synagogues or churches called also colledges or schools where the Prophets and sons of the Prophets taught especially on the sabbath-day that they were independent from any church-judicatory How synagogues were altered from their first institution and that being converted into Christian churches they retained the same right power and way of government 251 Chap. XXIV That the Christian churches under heathens were governed by a confederate discipline or a power of magistracy as the synagogues were appointing men which Ambrose calls elders to decide such matters as otherwise were to come under the magistrates cognizance This practise is grounded upon 1 Cor. 6. v. 1 2 c. and confirmed by Origen Iustin Martyr Ambrose and Mr. Lightfoot That the power of these elders continued still under Christian Emperours with some alteration they erecting in lieu of them Episcopall courts That all church-power was the Emperours power That the very heathen magistrates knew no other but that all power was annexed to them 267 Chap. XXV That ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as it is held by the Romish church better agreeth with reason and the letter of the Scripture then that of the presbyterian brethren That some Romanists have ascribed more power to the magistrate in sacred things then the presbyterian brethren 287 Chap. XXVI The description of excommunication in terms received by most of our opposites though otherwise variously defined by them That for four thousand years no such excommunication was in use either among the heathens or the Iewes An answer to some objections That the legall uncleannesse was no type of the morall That the Priests judging of the leprosy is no plea for excommunication nor for ecclesiasticall jurisdiction 298 Chap. XXVII That neither in the time of Ezra such an excommunication began That the casting out of the synagogue did not answer that excommunication That there is no ground for it nor practise of it in the new Testament 307 Chap. XXVIII That the whole context Matth. 18. v. 15 16 17 and 18. maketh nothing for excommunication neither Iudas non-admission if granted to the Eucharist nor the delivering of the incestuous person to Satan nor yet the self-examination required 1 Cor. 11. 316 Chap. XXIX That excommunication is contrary to common sense and reason 326 Chap. XXX That excommunication was mainly subservient to the working of the mystery of iniquity That the corrupting of the doctrine of the Eucharist made way for excommunication 337 Chap. XXXI The History of excommunication from the first reformation from Popery how it was received in Geneva but not settled without disputes and clashings betwixt the consistory and the magistrate 342 Chap. XXXII A continuation of the History of excommunication in France the Low-Countreys Scotland the Palatinate How it came to pass that amongst reformed states the Scottish ecclesiasticall jurisdiction ascended to such a height What plea the reformed churches in France have for excommunication That it is more justifiable among them then in churches under an orthodox magistrate 353 Chap. XXXIII The judgement of some
obedience which powers I have shewed that nothing could step between as medium either of participation or of negation although our presbyterian brethren tell us that the ecclesiasticall is also coordinate if not to the power of the word at least to the power of the magistrate a power they say which is distinct both from the power of the word and from the power of the magistrate But this having already been disproved by reason I will alledge but one of their own namely Triglandius de potestate ecclesiastica against Vedelius as good as confessing he cannot tell what to make of that ecclesiasticall power and where it must be placed for in the description he makes of the power of the magistrate about sacred things and that of the power of the word which yet he calls ecclesiasticall he leaves no room for a presbyterian ecclesiasticall power of excommunicating deposing and making lawes authoritatively as they speak Though I say he calls that power ecclesiasticall yet it hath but merely the name of it for he giveth such a description to it as I could give no other to the power of the word These be his words in the prefaâ—… to the reader The ecclesiasticall power is the spirituall power seated in the administration of the keyes of the Kingdom of heaven striking at the soul and intrinsecally affecting the consciences of men which God maketh use of as an instâ—ument and a mean for their conversion and salvation and for that cause is so much nobler then the civill as the soul is nobler then the body and eternall felicity and salvation is more excellent then temporall prosperity But this power none of the divines attribute to the magistrate There is nothing in this description that belongeth to the ecclesiasticall presbyterian power such as Mr. Gillespie would give us for excommunication doth not strike at the soul but at the body and the opposition he maketh of the things he likens it to do shew he speaketh of such a power as is called the power of the resurrection Philip. 3. v. 10. and the power of God Rom. 1. v. 16. and by which we are the sons of God Ioh. 1. v. 12. which properties cannot belong to the power of excommunication and of making lawes in a synod which being carried by the major part of votes though it were but of one oblige all men to obedience Yet my â—everend â—…nd Mr. Caesar Calandrin conceiveth that Triglandius by the keyes understood both keyes of the word and of discipline To that I say 1. that Triglandius description of ecclesiasticall power reacheth only to the soul and not to the ordering the outward man by discipline 2. that a key is an admission to the Kingdom of grace and not to a visible assembly 3. a key is an instrument to get in those that are without if they please to come in willingly not to force them in or to keep them from entering nor to cast out those that are within by excommunication except they desire to go out of themselves They use to expell men with staves and â—udgels but not with a key except it be taken by the wrong end and to a wrong use What Triglandius saith that this power none of the divines attribute to the magistrate is true of the power of the word in converting from darknesse to light which indeed none of the divines ascribe to the magistrate But if he had spoken of a power of presbyterian ecclesiasticall judicatories it had not been true what he saith that none of the divines attribute it to the magistrate for it is the opinion of Bullingerus Musculus Gualterus great and famous divines who take off from the ministers all such presbyteriall power and give it to the true owner even to the Christian magistrates Now let us see how farre he extendeth the power of the magistrate in sacred things by which it is plain he affords no room for presbyterian power to interpose between the power whereof we have just now seen the description and the power of the magistrate These be his words ch 16. p. 317. It belongeth to the civil power to deliberate what religion he will have to be exercised among his subjects if he doth remove the true religion he abuseth indeed his power yet for all that his power must not be denied I would fain know by what power the magistrate doth these things Is it an ecclesiasticall or civil If civil then some acts of the ecclesiasticall power are subordinate to the civil if ecclesiasticall I ask whether it is coordinate to that of the ministers power or subordinate to the civil power If subordinate 't is all I say If coordinate then it is ten times more absurd to fain two equall powers and judicatories over the same persons and in the same cause and matter as we shall see in another place To clear all mistakes about subordination of powers 1. When we say that ecclesiasticall power is subordinate to the power of the magistrate we do not understand a subordination of functions for neither the functions of physitians merchants professours of arts no more then that of ministers are subordinate to magistracy but that whatever jurisdiction ministers physitians merchants or professours of arts have is subordinate to the magistrate And indeed this hath been one great cause to deny a subordination of ecclesiasticall to civil because persons and functions and the affairs about these functions having alwayes been separated this errour hath soon crept in that jurisdiction and rule must be also separated but if jurisdictions have need to be separated and distinct because functions are so there would be as many jurisdictions in a state as there be professours of arts and sciences And since functions that have no affinity with magistracy make no distinction of jurisdiction much lesse the sacred function and magistracy that are so near a kin have need to have severall jurisdictions And indeed the affinity is great both tending to the promoting of the soveraign good and for many 1000. years the same person having been invested with them both 2. It is a great mistake of some who because a jurisdiction is from God and subordinate to him deny it to be subordinate to the magistrate For is not the maritall or paternall power-subordinate to God and yet to the magistrate and is not despoticall power subordinate to God Colos 4. and yet to the magistrate 3. Neither do we say that all those whose jurisdiction is subordinate to the magistrate ought to exercise their power by authority from the magistrate only for they must do it as servants 1. â—n all just and lawfull things 2. not with an eye-submission as St. Paul saith of servants as men-pleasers but as subject to Christ and from a principle of conscience though there were no magistrates at all 4. This consideration will remove many mistakes that it may well stand that a power a command a law a precept may be both from God from the
probatum est to them all controversie will be ended and the power in the hands of church-officers will be no longer distinct from that of the magistrate and all presbyterian jurisdiction of excommunicating deposing and making lawes authoritatively will be taken away So that if we give credit to Mr. Rutherfurd all acts sentences and excommunications pronounced by synods and presbyteries are no further valide then as they are conceived by the magistrates and private men agreeable with the word The other passage of Mr. Rutherfurd doth no lesse pull down the definitive judgement of ministers and by it all presbyterian jurisdiction p. 577. As the church is to approve and command the just sentence of the civill judge in punishing ill doers but only conditionally so far as it is just so is the magistrate obliged to follow ratifie and with his civil sanction confirm the sound constitutions of the church but conditionally not absolutely and blindly but only so far as they agree with the word of God Studying brevity I am loth to load the reader with authorities out of most eminent divines Zanchius Martyr Iunius Pareus Camero Rivetus and others all jointly proving 1. that all the judgements and sentences of synods church-judicatories presbyteries are mere counsels advices and no lawes obliging to obedience or to assent except they receive the ultimate sanction from the magistrate 2. that the magistrate ought not to take the ministers or synods judgement barely because it comes from them but follow his own judgement I will alledge but one or two out of Pareus and one out of Rivetus That of Pareus is on the 13. Rom. All faithfull even private men ought to judge of faith and of religion not only with an apprehensive judgement that by it they may understand the true religion but also with a judgement of discretion that they may distinguish the true from the false hold to one and reject the other much more ought the Christian magistrate to judge of the religion not only apprehensively and discretively but also definitively Here we have a definitive judgement proper to magistrates as well as to ministers and church-judicatories In the same place A Prince ought to defend the true religion suppresse the false banish blasphemies and heresies he ought then to know of all these singly and by his office judge of them for if he were only to draw the sword at the beck of the priests without knowledge and judgement and without making any question whether the judgements of the pastors are right or no what would he be but a sergeant and an executioner as the Iewes made of Pilate saving to him If he had not been a malefactour we would not have delivered him to thee Rivet on the decalogue hath these words We joyn those two together that the magistrate should not only act by others prejudice but also by his own judgement not that he should trust so much to his but also let ministers of the Gospell have their parts not relying on his fancy but being counselled by the pastors of churches calling synods and there hearing godly and learned men discoursing out of the word of God of controversies of religion and of articles of faith then what he hath himself approved of to be the truth let him embrace it and spread it There he maketh no more of synods then a Prince of his state-counsellors or a sick man of his physitians whose judgements they take for counsells and advices and not for definitive sentences And so speaketh Maresius Coll. Theol. loc 16. thes 77. Ministers of churches do not so much represent judges in a senat as prudent doctors and learned gathered to give counsell and their result is like the advice of physitians about the health of the body By what I have said of judgement and alledged out of Mr. Rutherfurd that question so much debated betwixt the Romanists and the Protestants who is the judge of controversies in matters of faith is easily decided for doubtlesse the ministers of the Gospell have by their education function and ministeriall duty that publick judgement to declare either in churches or synods what by the judgement of discretion they conceive to be the mind and the ordinance of Christ but this judgement inforceth and obligeth no man to assent to it except they also by their private judgement of discretion apprehend it to be such So ought neither magistrates nor the power of magistracy seated in churches to command or enjoyn it as a law to be obeyed or a doctrine to be believed except apprehended by the judgement of discretion to be the mind or an ordinance of Christ Ministers in divinity physitians in physick each professour of art in his art not only because they are more versed in that thing they professe but also ex officio have a judgement that carrieth and giveth more authority but it being fallible and therefore subject to the revisall of others whether magistrates or subjects and not attended with command obliging to obedience either active or passive it is only authentick to them that are perswaded and convinced to yield to it CHAPTER V. An examination of the 30. chapter of the confession of faith made by the Rever Assembly of Divines That in their Assembly they assumed no jurisdiction nor had any delegated to them from the magistrate and therefore were not to attribute it to their brethren That the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is the same with the magistrates jurisdiction Mr. Gillespies reasons examined THe reverend Assembly of Divines in the 30. and 31. chapters of their Confession of Faith are strong assertors of a double jurisdiction Before I come to examine what they say and their proofs alledged in the margent I would be well understood that I do not quarrell against the spirituall jurisdiction over the inward man in the ministery when a minister doth command from Christ and the people yields obedience being once inlightened and convinced all is done on both parts willingly and not by constraint the weapons of that jurisdiction are not carnall and yet very mighty not by putting away by excommunication but by pulling down the strong holds of sin and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2. Cor. 10. v. 4. 5. The Lord Iesus Christ say they sect 1. as King and head of his Church hath therein appointed a government in the hands of Church-officers distinct from the civil magistrate It may be the Rev. Assembly do only intend to adjudge jurisdiction to other church-assemblies and synods and none to themselves for these reasons 1. They were bound by their charter by which they were called not to exercise any jurisdiction and authority ecclesiasticall whatsoever or any other power for these be the words of the ordinance and besides are en joyned not to assume any authority but to advise and give counsell upon such things as shall be propounded to them and to deliver their opinions and advices 2. And the same they did
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
them The synod of the Apostles was extraordinary not exemplary The exception of the brethren of Scotland against the 2. article of the 31. chapter of the confession examined The uses abuses of synods that they are not the way to compose differences in matters of religion if their canons are beyond counsells and advices HAving examined what plea the Rever Assembly can have in the 30. chapter of their confession for a government distinct from that of the magistrate the 31. chapter which is of synods and councells is more superficially to be handled for what we have said before of the jurisdiction of churches plainly sheweth that the jurisdiction of synods is no otherwise distinct from that of the magistrate for since synods must be made up of church-officers it is not possible they should impart to synods what they have not in churches and that those that have not a jurisdiction in churches distinct from that of the magistrate should delegate to themselves a power which they never had I admit willingly the necessity of synods as the first section doth synods being necessary whether magistrates be orthodox or not 1. for preserving and restoring truth 2. for uniting churches in one judgement 3. for keeping an externall communion of Saints And it were to be wished as the magistrate of England hath set up again the Lords house so they would re-establish a house of convocation or an assembly of ministers meeting at the same time that the Parliament sits treating such questions in matters of religion as should be propounded to them by the Parliament or they themselves should petition the Parliament to be handled not being invested with more judiciall power then a company of merchants or sea-men called by the Parliament to give their advice about trade and navigation in which convocation the major part of votes should not be so much regarded by the Parliament as the weight of their opinions and reasons and therefore as it was in the last assembly where 20. did not prevail against one dissenting brother so this convocation should return to the Parliament not the result of the whole assembly because carried by the major part of the members but the names of parties assenting and dissenting This convocation I humbly conceive ought to be made up only of ministers of the Gospell that have wholly set apart themselves for the work of the ministery and study of Divinity For as the supreme magistrate usually calls men of that calling and profession about which he is to make lawes as being the most fit to give counsell in the thing they are called for so doubtlesse none are so fit to be advised with in matters concerning religion as those that are most learned and versed in it for I hold them not only the fitter members in an assembly convened to treat of matters concerning religion but also not unfit yea as fit as any other men to sit and vote in Parliaments For this opinion of a double jurisdiction ecclesiasticall and civil that lay-men must be judges in civil courts and ministers in ecclesiasticall assemblies as it hath barred lay-men from sitting at least from voting in synods and councels so hath it removed clergy-men from sitting and being judges in civil courts and Parliaments which opinion hath out-gone the Papists in some things for though they do not permit lay-men to have votes yea hardly to sit in synods yet do the popish magistrates admit ecclesiasticall men in their courts and judicatories thus lately Bishops in England sate in Parliament I confesse that Popes to advance the building of their empire within the empires of magistrates Kings and Emperours would be sure to have an oare in every boat yea more for though they have members of their own in civil courts yet they permit no members of civil courts to sit and vote in synods and councels But some Protestant magistrates in reforming popery as they have not so much relinquisht and parted with their own right as popish magistrates to loose their right in calling and voting in synods so have they more wronged the clergy debarring them from sitting and voting in their courts which I humbly conceive to be a losse to the magistrate and a wrong and injury done to the ministers and thereupon I propound these considerations 1. Debarting of the ministers from sitting and voting in Parliament hath occasioned and confirmed mens minds specially of ministers in that opinion that there is such a thing in Scripture and reason as a government in the hands of church-officers distinct from that of the magistrate and that there is a double jurisdiction two judicatories one civil whereof the magistrates and laity are members and judges and another ecclesiasticall in which ministers only must sit and vote for ministers think it but reasonable that since they are kept off by the laity from being members in Parliament and in all civil judicatories so likewise the magistrate and the laity should not be admitted to sit and vote in synods whereas it being certain that there is no ground in Scripture or reason for a double jurisdiction a government distinct from that of the magistrate and all judiciall proceedings in whatsoever court assembly Parliament synods presbyteries being acts of the magistrates jurisdiction the minister now considered as as member of a Christian common-wealth ought to enjoy the same priviledge as the other members of it All which make me conceive that it was more heat then reason that made so many write against the Bishops voting in Parliament besides it was no good work to divide jurisdictions which by the ministers sitting and voting in Parliament like other ranks of men were re-united 2. There being in a Parliament men of all sorts and ranks gentlemen lawyers physitians apothecaries merchants and they all having an equall interest to maintain religion lands liberty lawes wife and children of their own it is altogether unreasonable that ministers that are alike concerned in all these and are as well members of the Commonwealth as the best of them should notwithstanding as it were be culled out from having that priviledge that others of their fellow-citizens enjoy 3. It is known that men do not sit and vote in Parliament as merchants physitians silk-men or drapers and that if there be new lawes to make or old to alter suppose about some manufacture as cloth-working a member of Parliament being professour of that craft which is in agitation is the most able to discourse upon that subject and to state how the thing may be regulated and this he doth as a professour of the craft about which the law is to be made but when the thing debated is to be carried by vote receive the stamp of law of publick authority then I say none of the members give their votes as professours of the art and science which they exercise in the Commonwealth and which is debated in Parliament no not if a member were a chief justice of England
sit what matter they must handle may not the lay-man then interpose as in a businesse of his classis may not also ecclesiasticall persons do the like Besides 100. constitutions may be found of such a mixt nature that it is not yet resolved what classis they pertain unto whether ecclesiasticall or civil such are the lawes about wills marriages tithes tenths usury collections for the poor appointing of dayes for fasting or thanksgiving lawes for pious uses and the like Will this expedient serve to resolve the conscience viz. if such an assembly of mixt persons and causes be named neither a councell or synod nor a civil judicatory but an assembly or some other name participating of the nature of both as if names could alter the nature of the thing and satisfy the conscience In short I believe the reverend assembly both wrong themselves and no way satisfy mens minds and consciences in not stating what is ecclesiasticall what is not and how far this or that man may meddle in ecclesiasticall and civil matters what name is to be given to this or that assembly I am crowded with matter that were worth deciding about synods which argument I handled largely in the 22. and 23. chapters of my Paraenesis The power of synods is decisive directive and declarative they decide by way of discussion and disputation they direct by way of counsell and they declare their opinions as expert and well known and read in the thing that is in question Coercive and judiciall power they have none but what is delegated from the magistrate or from private churches so that though the authority of a synod is greater then that of a private church yet the power of that church is greater then that of a synod If there be an union of churches as there ought to be even under an orthodox magistrate all canons and decrees are no otherwise binding as laws then as they have the stamp of magistracy upon them Supremi magistratus approbatio est supremum arrestum ut loquuntur saith Festus Hommius disp 18. thes 4 and disp 17. thes 3. the approbation of the magistrate is the supreme decree And not only reformers but also some Romanists namely the authour of the Review of the councill of Trent a learned book and which the learned Dr. Langbane thought his pains worthy in his youth to turn into English Lib. 3. cap. 13. the Emperour as is commonly known the Monarch of churches is president to the synodall sentences gives them force composeth ecclesiasticall orders giveth law life and policy to those that serve at the altar Is it credible that a Romanist should be of a more sincere judgement in this matter then a reformed Christian such as Mr. Gillespie Those that are for a judiciall power of synods over churches do alledge the synod of the Apostles which being infallible is no example to us no more then the miracles of Christ and the Apostles argue that ordinary ministers must work miracles When private churches can be sure that a synod in these dayes is led by such a spirit of infallibility they may yield to it without disputing yet not without examining as did those of Beroea who tryed the Sermon of St. Paul whether it was agreeable to other scriptures and were there now a synod made up of 40. or 50. men like Peter and Paul a church should reverence their orders but yet that synod should have no coercive jurisdiction over the church but such as overcometh the inward man by perswasion and leadeth him as it were captive to the obedience of truth And in case men and churches were not perswaded or did delay obedience and submission I say that such an Apostolicall synod could bring neither churches nor men to an outward conformity to their sentences lawes and decrees without a power delâ—…ated from the magistrate or some magistracy seated in churches Let us come to the second section As magistrates may lawfully call a synod of ministers and other fit persons to consult and advise with about matters of religion so if magistrates be open enemies to the church the ministers of Christ of themselves by vertue of their office or they with other fit persons upon delegation from their churches may meet together in such assemblies There is nothing in this section but I will willingly grant 1. They yield that magistrates may call synods 2. that a synod is an assembly of men convocated by the magistrate 3. who are to advise the magistrate about ordering matters of religion and discipline 4. under an orthodox magistrate as synods receive their jurisdiction from the magistrate so private churches under them ought to receive their orders and constitutions as lawes of the magistrate but under an heterodox magistrate synods receive their authority from private churches so that canons and decrees of synods are so far valid as they are approved or ratified by private churches that have conferred the power they being then in lieu of the magistrate The generall assembly of Scotland perceiving that this article doth much weaken ecclesiasticall power under an orthodox magistrate hath thought fit in their generall assembly at Edenburgh Aug. 27. sess 23. to put a glosse or comment upon it saying that the assembly understandeth some part of the second article of the thirty first chapter only of Kirks not settled or constituted in point of government and that although in such Kirks a synod of ministers and other fit persons may be called by the magistrates authority and nomination without any other call to consult and advise with about matters of religion and although likewise the ministers of Christ without delegation from their churches may of themselves and by vertue of their office meet together synodically in such Kirks not yet constituted yet neither of these ought to be done in Kirks constituted and settled So they will have the second article to be understood of churches not constituted or settled in which case they say the magistrate may call synods else they say it doth not belong to him but to the ministers who then ought to assemble of themselves without any commission from the magistrate which is expressely against the literall meaning of the second article which as all others of the confession is of things that are to be received believed and practised at all times and which they count of Divine right and for which therefore they alledge places of Scripture namely Isa 49. v. 23. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers a place which in my opinion maketh little to the purpose no more then the place out of 1. Tim. 2. v. 2. where we are bidden to pray for Kings doth to prove the power of magistrates in calling of synods Neither doth that place 2 Chronic. 19. v. 9. c. avail much but only that magistrates may call and constitute assemblies in generall for there is no speech there of any ecclesiasticall assemblies for they were not yet thought on at that time The 29.
the sons of the prophets multiplying and their house temple or auditory being too little they enlarged it and chap. 22. v. 14. Huldah the prephetesse is said to dwell in Bamischnah in a colledge or school of learning So from 1 Samuel 19. v. 18. and 20. one may gather that Samuel being the chief Rabbi and Prophet having many disciples under him had his house of oration school or Colledge at Naioth in Ramah where he did not only teach publickly upon sabbathâ— ayes but also instructed upon other days his disciples or young prophets called his sons as appeareth by the 20. verse except by prophecying be meant uttering marvellous things of Gods greatnesse goodnesse providence for the ordinary gift and charge of the prophets was not so much to declare hidden and foretell future things as to expound the law and to exhort the people and pray with them in which sense John Baptist is called by Jesus Christ a propher who yet never wrote nor uttered any prophecies and Exod. 7. v. 4. Aaron is called the prophet of Moses because he was his interpreter to the people And the great number of those prophets sheweth manifestly that their ordinary employment was to do what the prophets of the new Testament do to exhort teach comfort-rebuke no lesse number being required for that work under the old then under the new In the 1 Kings ch 18. when Jezabel did seek to destroy the Prophets Obadiah hid 100. in a cave and in the 2. book chap. 2. v. 16 the sons of the Prophets sead of their own body 50. men to seek after El jah Sure there was no need of so many to foretell future things when one of a 1000. Prophets might undergo that charge well enough to satisfy all the people of the mind of God concerning future things wherewith but few of the people need to be acquainted but all the people had need of teachers and instructers in the law of Moses and that in a considerable number for 1000. had not been enough to instruct the fourth part of the people in the ordinary way of prophecying that is teaching and exhorting for the Rabbins say that there were 480. such houses of convocation or prayer otherwise called synagogues in Jerusalem There is mention made of two houses which were famous one at Bethel the other at Jericho whither the sons of the Prophets repaired to Elisha They were frequented not only every sabbath-day and new moon for praying with the people of the neighbourhood as appeareth by 2 Kings v. 22. but also for teaching their disciples and resolving any that should come to them upon any doubt whither it is likely David did go Psal 73. v. 16. when being inwardly perplexed with distractions he could find no settlement till he went to the sanctuary of God to be instructed better then he was where by the sanctuary doubtless is meant such a house of convocation or school And in the 27. Psalme that one thing that David desired of the Lord was no doubt to have communion with God and with the faithfull people in the Temple or house of prayer whereto he resorted every sabbath for it is not likely he understood this of being partaker of the legall rites sacrifices in the Temple at Jerusalem which was not yet built What was the form and matter of the exercises in those houses the Scripture mentioneth not only we gather by what the Prophets of Baal did 1 Kings 18. v. 26. that likewise the Prophets of God in those synagogues or houses of convocation did pray from morning untill noon and then till evening taught by catechising and expounding for in the 29. verse the word prophesving is equivalent to teaching and instructing And Samuel 1. book c. 12. v 23. maketh two parts of his propheticall office viz. to pray and teach God forbid that I should sin against God in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you Now as those prophets had no dependence on the Priests and Levites no more then the houses of convocation where they taught so neither do we read that there was any consociation of all these convocations into one nationall church under some church-judicatory made up of Priests and Levites or that they had any dependence on the Sanedrim or state-court prescribing them any orders how to govern themselves only they were not to teach and expound ought but the law whereof the magistrate was the keeper and guardian nor to thwart the duties of the publick worship commanded such as were the killing of the passeover at set times the appearing of the males three times in the year at the place that God was to chuse and performing all the sacrifices oblations and rites enjoyned and so far were the convocations depending on the magistrate For in the first institution we do not read that these convocations or synagogues or those that were over them were or needed to be invested with any jurisdiction but were like schools of learning whose masters and teachers were also like Plato Zeno Aristotle over the schools in Greece who had scholars men of ripe years and discretion that with a withing fulmission embraced their sayings and precepts so that the Prince or Dr. of the school needed not any restraining or coercive discipline to order them And indeed it is very likely that those heathenish schools of Philosophans had their first rise and ouginall from those 〈◊〉 wish schools But that each of those convocations where Prophets taught and expounded were independent from other convocations saving only so far as they were all members of the same Commonwealth will appear anone when we enquire into the nature of these convocations when they went currently under the name of synagogues and all jointly were not one Commonwealth in one countrey but lived dispersed for then every lynagogue was sui Iuris and governed it self though some Râ—manists would perswade us that many synagogues were aggregated under one Archisynagogue or chief 〈◊〉 which is a great mistake for some synagogues had sometimes many Archisynagogues It is true we read in the Theodosian code of Patriarchs of the Jâ—wes lib. 8. tit 18. de Iudaeâ—s coelicolis or Samaritanis but those Patriarchs were not over any matter concerning law or religion but were only publick treasurers of mony levied for the poor for building of synagogues the like 'T is true also that the nature of those synagogues being changed as long as the Senat at Jerusalem had any repute other synagogues did defer very much to it requesting letters of advice from them but submitted not to any command as from a superiour to an inferiour as we gather by Act. 9. v. 2. and 3. and ch 28. v. 21. But to follow the history of these convocations a little farther their independency is clearly to be seen when the faithfull people lived under idolatious Kings as under Jeroboam and his successours for they could not depend on the Sanedum at Jerusalem since it was a capitall
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
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