The Works of Mr. George Gillespie Part 38
38. And for this cause, as in doctrinal controversies, which are handled by theologists and casuists, and in those which belong to the common state of the orthodox churches, the national synod is subordinate and subjected to the universal lawfully-const.i.tuted synod, and from the national to the oec.u.menical synod (when there is a just and weighty cause) an appeal is open: so there is no need that the appeals of those who complain of injury done to them through the exercise of discipline in this or that church, should go beyond the bounds of the national synod; but it is most agreeable to reason that they should rest and acquiesce within those bounds and borders; and that the ultimate judgment of such mutters be in the national synod, unless the thing itself be so hard and of so great moment, that the knot be justly thought worthy of a greater decider; in which case the controversy which is carried to the universal synod is rather of an abstract general theological proposition than of the particular or individual case.
39. Furthermore, the administration of the ecclesiastic power in consistories, cla.s.ses and synods, doth not at all tend to weaken in anywise, hurt or diminish, the authority of the civil magistrate, much less to take it away or destroy it; yea, rather, by it a most profitable help cometh to the magistrate, forasmuch as by the bond of religion men's consciences are more straitly tied unto him. There has been, indeed, fantastical men, who, under pretence and cloak of Christian liberty, would abolish and cast out laws and judgments, orders also, degrees and honours, out of the commonwealth, and have been bold to reckon the function of the magistrate armed with the sword among evil things and unlawful: but the reformed churches do renounce and detest these dreams, and do most harmoniously and most willingly confess and acknowledge it to be G.o.d's will that the world be governed by laws and policy, and that he himself hath appointed the civil magistrate, and hath delivered to him the sword to the protection and praise of good men, but for punishment and revenge on the evil, that by this bridle, men's vices and faults may be restrained, whether these are committed against the first or second table.
40. The reformed churches believe also, and openly confess, the power and authority of emperors over their empires, of kings over their kingdoms, of princes and dukes over their dominions, and of other magistrates or states over their commonwealths and cities, to be the ordinances of G.o.d himself appointed as well to the manifestation of his own glory, as to the singular profit of mankind: and withal, that by reason of the will of G.o.d himself, revealed in his word, we must not only suffer and be content that those do rule which are set over their own territories, whether by hereditary or by elective right, but also to love them, fear them, and with all reverence and honour embrace them as the amba.s.sadors and ministers of the most high and good G.o.d, being in his stead, and preferred for the good of their subjects, to pour out prayers for them, to pay tributes to them, and in all business of the commonwealth which is not against the word of G.o.d, to obey their laws and edicts.
41. The orthodox churches believe also, and do willingly acknowledge, that every lawful magistrate, being by G.o.d himself const.i.tuted the keeper and defender of both tables of the law, may and ought first and chiefly to take care of G.o.d's glory, and (according to his place, or in his manner and way) to preserve religion when pure, and to restore it when decayed and corrupted: and also to provide a learned and G.o.dly ministry, schools also and synods, as likewise to restrain and punish as well atheists, blasphemers, heretics and schismatics, as the violaters of justice and civil peace.
42. Wherefore the opinion of those sectaries of this age is altogether to be disallowed, who, though otherwise insinuating themselves craftily into the magistrate's favour, do deny unto him the authority and right of restraining heretics and schismatics, and do hold and maintain that such persons, how much soever hurtful and pernicious enemies to true religion and to the church, yet are to be tolerated by the magistrate, if so be he conceive them to be such as no way violate the laws of the commonwealth, and in nowise disturb the civil peace.
43. Yet the civil power and the ecclesiastical ought not by any means to be confounded or mixed together. Both powers are indeed from G.o.d, and ordained for his glory, and both to be guided by his word, and both are comprehended under that precept, "Honour thy father and thy mother," so that men ought to obey both civil magistrates and ecclesiastical governors in the Lord; to both powers their proper dignity and authority is to be maintained and preserved in force: to both also is some way intrusted the keeping of both tables of the law, also both the one and the other doth exercise some jurisdiction, and giveth sentence of judgment in an external court or judicatory: but these and other things of like sort, in which they agree notwithstanding, yet by marvellous vast differences are they distinguished the one from the other, and the rights of both remain distinct, and that eight manner of ways, which it shall not be amiss here to add, that unto each of these administrations, its own set bounds may be the better maintained.
44. _First_, therefore, they are differenced the one from the other, in respect of the very foundation and the inst.i.tution: for the political or civil power is grounded upon the law of nature itself, and for that cause it is common to infidels with Christians; the power ecclesiastical dependeth immediately upon the positive law of Christ alone: that belongeth to the universal dominion of G.o.d the Creator over all nations; but this unto the special and economical kingdom of Christ the Mediator, which he exerciseth in the church alone, and which is not of this world.
45. The _second_ difference is in the object, or matter about which: the power politic or civil is occupied about the outward man, and civil or earthly things,-about war, peace, conservation of justice, and good order in the commonwealth; also about the outward business or external things of the church, which are indeed necessary to the church, or profitable, as touching the outward man, yet not properly and purely spiritual, for they do not reach unto the soul, but only to the external state and condition of the ministers and members of the church.
46. For the better understanding whereof it is to be observed, that so far as the ministers and members of the church are citizens, subjects, or members of the commonwealth, it is in the power of the magistrate to judge, determine, and give sentence, concerning the disposing of their bodies or goods; as also concerning the maintenance of the poor, the sick, the banished, and of others in the church who are afflicted; to regulate (so far as concerneth the civil order) marriages, burials, and other circ.u.mstances which are common both to holy, and also to honest civil societies; to afford places fit for holy a.s.semblies, and other external helps by which the sacred matters of the Lord may be more safely, commodiously, and more easily in the church performed, to remove the external impediments of divine worship or of ecclesiastical peace, and to repress those who exalt themselves against the true church and her ministers, and do raise up trouble against them.
47. The matter may further be thus ill.u.s.trated, there is almost the like respect and consideration of the magistrate as he is occupied about the outward things of the church, and of the ecclesiastic ministry as it is occupied about the inward or spiritual part of civil government, that is, about those things which in the government of the commonwealth belong to the conscience. It is one thing to govern the commonwealth, and to make political and civil laws, another thing to interpret the word of G.o.d, and out of it to show the magistrate his duty, to wit, how he ought to govern the commonwealth, and in what manner he ought to use the sword. The former is proper and peculiar to the magistrate (neither doth the ministry intermeddle or entangle itself into such businesses), but the latter is contained within the office of the ministers.
48. For to that end also in the holy Scripture profitable, to show which is the best manner of governing a commonwealth, and that the magistrate, as being G.o.d's minister, may by this guiding star be so directed, as that he may execute the parts of his office according to the will of G.o.d, and may perfectly be instructed to every good work; yet the minister is not said properly to treat of civil businesses, but of the scandals which arise about them, or in the cases of conscience which occur in the administration of the commonwealth, so also the magistrate is not properly said to be exercised about the spiritual things of the church, but rather about those external things which adhere unto and accompany the spiritual things.
49. And in such external matters of the church, although all magistrates will not, yet all, yea even heathen magistrates, may and ought to aid and help the church: whence it is that by the command of G.o.d prayers are to be made also for an heathen magistrate, that the faithful under them may live a quiet life, with all G.o.dliness and honesty, 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.
50. Unto the external things of the church belongeth, not only the correction of heretics and other troublers of the church, but also that civil order and way of convocating and calling together synods which is proper to the magistrate; for the magistrate ought by his authority and power both to establish the rights and liberties of synods a.s.sembling together at times appointed by the known and received law, and to indict and gather together synods occasionally, as often as the necessity of the church shall require the same. Not that all or any power to consult or determine of ecclesiastic or spiritual matters doth flow or spring from the magistrate as head of the church under Christ, but because in those things pertaining to the outward man, the church needeth the magistrate's aid and support.
51. So that the magistrate calleth together synods, not as touching those things which are proper to synods, but in respect of the things which are common to synods with other meetings and civil public a.s.semblies, that is, not as they are a.s.semblies in the name of Christ, to treat of matters spiritual, but as they are public a.s.semblies within his territories; for to the end that public conventions may be kept in any territory, the license of the lord of that place ought to be desired. In synods, therefore, a respect of order, as well civil as ecclesiastical, is to be had; and because of this civil order, outward defence, better accommodation, together with safe access and recess, the consent and commandment of him who is appointed to take care of, and defend human order, doth intervene.
52. Moreover, when the church is rent asunder by unhappy and lamentable schisms, while they who have raised the troubles, and given cause for the solemn gathering of a synod (whether by their heresy, or schism, or tyranny, or any other fault of others), use to place the great strength and safeguard of their cause in declining and fleeing the trial and sentence of a free synod as being formidable to them, who seeth not that they cannot be drawn to a public and judicial trial, nor other disobedient persons be compelled to obedience, without the magistrate's public mandate and help.
53. The object of ecclesiastical power is not the same with the object of the civil power, but much differing from it; for the ecclesiastical power doth determine and appoint nothing concerning men's bodies, goods, dignities, civil rights, but is employed only about the inward man or the soul; not that it can search the hearts or judge of the secrets of the conscience, which is in the power of G.o.d alone: yet notwithstanding it hath for its proper object those externals which are purely spiritual, and do belong properly and most nearly to the spiritual good of the soul; which also are termed t? e?sa t?? ?????s?a?, _the inward things of the church_.
54. Those things, then, wherein the ecclesiastical power is exercised, are the preaching of the word, the administration of sacraments, public prayer and thanksgiving, the catechising and instructing of children and ignorant persons, the examination of those who are to come to the holy communion, the ecclesiastical discipline, the ordination of ministers, and the abdication, deposing, and degrading of them (if they become like unsavoury salt), the deciding and determining of controversies of faith and cases of conscience, canonical const.i.tutions concerning the treasury of the church and collections of the faithful, as also concerning ecclesiastical rites or indifferent things which pertain to the keeping of decency and order in the church, according to the general rules of Christian love and prudence contained in the word of G.o.d.
55. It is true that about the same things the civil power is occupied, as touching the outward man, or the outward disposing of divine things in this or that dominion, as was said, not as they are spiritual and evangelical ordinances piercing into the conscience itself, but the object of the power ecclesiastical is a thing merely and purely spiritual; and in so far as it is spiritual (for even that jurisdiction ecclesiastical which is exercised in an outward court or judicatory, and which inflicteth public censures, forbiddeth from the use of the holy supper, and excludeth from the society of the church) doth properly concern the inward man, or the repentance and salvation of the soul.
56. Surely the faithful and G.o.dly ministers, although they could do it unchallenged and uncontrolled, and were therein allowed by the magistrate (as in the prelatical times it was) yet would not usurp the power of life and death, or judge and determine concerning men's honours, goods, inheritance, division of families, or other civil businesses, seeing they well know these things to be heterogeneous to their office; but as they ought not to entangle themselves with the judging of civil causes, so if they should be negligent and slothful in their own office, they shall in that be no less culpable.
57. To the object also of ecclesiastical power belongeth the a.s.sembling of synods, so far as they are spiritual a.s.semblies proper to the church, and a.s.sembled in the Holy Ghost; for being so considered, the governors of churches, after the example of the apostles and presbyters, Acts xv., in a manifest danger of the church, ought to use their own right of meeting together and convening, that the churches endangered may be relieved and supported.
58. _Thirdly_, These powers are differenced in respect of their forms, and that three ways: for, first, the civil power, although in respect of G.o.d it be ministerial, yet in respect of the subjects it is lordly and magisterial. Ecclesiastical power is indeed furnished with authority, yet that authority is liker the fatherly than the kingly authority; yea also it is purely ministerial, much less can it be lawful to ministers of the church to bear dominion over the flock.
59. Emperors, kings, and other magistrates are indeed appointed fathers of the country, but they are withal lords of their people and subjects: not as if it were permitted to them to bear rule and command at their own will and as they list (for they are the ministers of G.o.d for the good and profit of the subjects), yet it belongs to their power truly and properly to exercise dominion, to hold princ.i.p.ality, to proceed imperiously. It is indeed the duty of ministers and rulers of the church to oversee, to feed as shepherds, to correct and rectify, to bear the keys, to be stewards in the house of Christ, but in nowise to be lords over the house, or to govern as lords, or lord-like to rule; yea, in brief, this is the difference between the civil magistrate and the ecclesiastical ministry, in respect of those who are committed to their trust, that the lot of the former is to be served or ministered unto, the lot of the latter to minister or serve.
60. Now we have one only Lord who governs our souls, neither is it competent to man, but to G.o.d alone, to have power and authority over consciences. But the Lord hath appointed his own stewards over his own family, that according to his commandment they may give to every one their allowance or portion, and to dispense his mysteries faithfully; and to them he hath delivered the keys, or power of letting into his house, or excluding out of his house those whom he himself will have let in or shut out. Matt. xvi. 19; and xviii. 18; Luke xii. 42; 1 Cor. iv. 1; t.i.t. i. 7.
61. Next, the civil power is endued with authority of compelling; but it belongs not to the ministry to compel the disobedient. If any compulsion be in or about ecclesiastical matters, it is advent.i.tious from without, to wit, from the help and a.s.sistance of the magistrate, not from the nature of ecclesiastical power, from which it is very heterogeneous; and, therefore, if any suspended or excommunicate person should be found who shall be so stiff-necked, and so impudent, that at once he cast off all shame, and make no account at all of those censures, but scorn and contemn the same, or peradventure shall insolently or proudly obtrude himself upon the sacrament, or being also filled with devilish malice do more and more contradict and blaspheme, the ecclesiastical ministry in such cases hath nothing more to do by way of jurisdiction: but the magistrate hath in readiness a compelling jurisdiction and external force, whereby such stubborn, rebellious, and undaunted pride may be externally repressed.
62. Last of all, the power of the magistrate worketh only politically or civilly, according to the nature of the sceptre or sword, maketh and guardeth civil laws, which sometimes also he changeth or repealeth, and other things of that kind he effecteth with a secular power: but the ecclesiastical power dealeth spiritually, and only in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by authority intrusted or received from him alone: neither is exercised without prayer or calling on the name of G.o.d; nor, lastly, doth it use any other than spiritual weapons.
63. The same sin, therefore, in the same man may be punished one way by the civil, another way by the ecclesiastical power; by the civil power under the formality of a crime, with corporal or pecuniary punishment, by the ecclesiastical power, under the notion and nature of scandal, with a spiritual censure, even as also the same civil question is one way deliberate upon and handled by the magistrate in the senate or place of judgment, another way by the minister of the church, in the presbytery or synod; by the magistrate, so far as it pertaineth to the government of the commonwealth, by the minister, as far as it respects the conscience; for the ecclesiastical ministry also is exercised about civil things spiritually, in so far as it teacheth and admonisheth the magistrate out of the word of G.o.d what is best and most acceptable unto G.o.d; or as it reproveth freely unjust judgments, unjust wars, and the like, and out of the Scripture threateneth the wrath of G.o.d to be revealed against all unrighteousness of men: so also is the magistrate said to be occupied civilly about spiritual things.
64. Therefore all the actions of the civil magistrate, even when he is employed about ecclesiastical matters, are of their own nature and essentially civil, he punisheth externally idolaters, blasphemers, sacrilegious persons, heretics, profaners of holy things, and according to the nature and measure of the sin he condemneth to death or banishment, forfeiture of goods, or imprisonment; he guardeth and underproppeth ecclesiastical canons with civil authority, giveth a place of habitation to the church in his territory, restraineth or expelleth the insolent and untamed disturbers of the church.
65. He taketh care also for maintaining the ministers and schools, and supplieth the temporal necessities of G.o.d's servants; by his command a.s.sembleth synods, when there is need of them; and summoneth, calleth out, and draws to trial the unwilling, which without the magistrate's strength and authority cannot be done, as hath been already said; he maketh synods also safe and secure, and in a civil way presideth or moderateth in them (if it seem so good to him) either by himself or by a subst.i.tute commissioner: in all which the power of the magistrate, though occupied about spiritual things, is not for all that spiritual, but civil.
66. _Fourthly_, They differ in the end. The immediate nearest end of civil power is, that the good of the commonwealth may be provided for and procured, whether it be, in time of peace, according to the rules of law and counsel of judges, or in time of war, according to the rules of military prudence, and so the temporal safety of the subjects may be procured, and that external peace and civil liberty may be preserved, and, being lost, may be again restored.
67. But the chiefest and last end of civil government is, the glory of G.o.d the Creator, namely, that those who do evil, being by a superior power restrained or punished, and those who do good getting praise of the same, the subjects so much the more may shun impiety and injustice, and that virtue, justice, and the moral law of G.o.d (as touching those eternal duties of both tables, unto which all the posterity of Adam are obliged) may remain in strength and flourish.
68. But whereas the Christian magistrate doth wholly devote himself to the promoting of the gospel and kingdom of Christ, and doth direct and bend all the might and strength of his authority to that end: this proceedeth not from the nature of his office or function, which is common to him with an infidel magistrate, but from the influence of his common Christian calling into his particular vocation.
69. For every member of the church (and so also the faithful and G.o.dly magistrate) ought to refer and order his particular vocation, faculty, ability, power and honour, to this end, that the kingdom of Christ may be propagated and promoted, and the true religion be cherished and defended: so that the advancement of the gospel, and of all the ordinances of the gospel, is indeed the end of the G.o.dly magistrate, not of a magistrate simply: or (if ye will rather) it is not the end of the office itself, but of him who doth execute the same piously.
70. But the end of ecclesiastical power, yea, the end as well of the ministry itself as of the G.o.dly minister, is, that the kingdom of Christ may be set forward; that the paths of the Lord be made straight; that his holy mysteries may be kept pure; that stumblingblocks may be removed out of the church, lest a little leaven leaven the whole lump, or lest one sick or scabbed sheep infect the whole flock; that the faithful may so walk as it becometh the gospel of Christ, and that the wandering sheep of Christ may be converted and brought back to the sheepfold.
71. And seeing this power is given of the Lord not to destruction but to edification, therefore this same scope is propounded in excommunication (which is the greatest and last of ecclesiastical censures), namely, that the soul of an offending brother may be gained to Christ, and that, being stricken with fear, and the stubborn sinner filled with shame, may by the grace of G.o.d be humbled, and may (as a brand plucked out of the fire) be s.n.a.t.c.hed out of the snare of the devil, and may repent unto salvation; at least the rest may turn away from those which are branded with such a censure, lest the soul-infection do creep and spread further.
72. _Fifthly_, They are distinguished by the effect. The effect of civil power is either proper, or by way of redundance. The proper effect is the safety temporal of the commonwealth, external tranquillity, the fruition of civil liberty, and of all things which are necessary to the civil society of men: the effect by way of redundance is the good of the church, to wit, in so far as, by execution of justice and good laws, some impediments that usually hinder and disturb the course of the gospel, are avoided or taken away.
73. For by how much the more faithfully the magistrate executeth his office in punishing the wicked, and cherishing and encouraging good men, taking away those things which withstand the gospel, and punishing or driving away the troublers and subverters of the church,-so much the more the orthodox faith and G.o.dliness are reverenced and had in estimation,-sins are hated and feared. Finally, All the subjects contained (as much as concerneth the outward man) within the lists of G.o.d's law, whence, also, by consequence, it happeneth, by G.o.d's blessing, that the church is defiled with fewer scandals, and doth obtain the more freedom and peace.
74. But the proper effect of the ecclesiastical power, or keys of the kingdom of heaven is wholly spiritual; for the act of binding and loosing, of retaining and remitting sins, doth reach to the soul and conscience itself (which cannot be said of the act of the civil power): and as unjust excommunication is void, so ecclesiastical censure, being inflicted by the ministers of Christ and his stewards according to his will, is ratified in heaven (Matt, xviii. 18), and therefore ought to be esteemed and acknowledged in like manner as inflicted by Christ himself.
75. _Sixthly_, They are also differenced in respect of the subjects. The politic power is committed sometimes to one, sometimes to more, sometime by right of election, sometime by right of succession; but the ecclesiastical power is competent to none under the New Testament by the right of succession, but he who hath it must be called by G.o.d and the church to it; neither was it given by Christ to one, either pastor or elder, much less to a prelate, but _to the church_, that is, to the consistory of presbyters. It is confessed, indeed, and who can be ignorant of it, that the power, as they call it, of order, doth belong to particular ministers, and is by each of them apart lawfully exercised. But that power which is commonly called of jurisdiction is committed not to one, but to the unity, that is, to a consistory; therefore ecclesiastical censure ought not to be inflicted but "by many," 2 Cor. ii. 6.
76. _Seventhly_, They differ as touching the correlative. G.o.d hath commanded, that unto the civil power every soul, or all members of the commonwealth, of what condition and estate soever, be subject; for what have we to do with the Papists, who will have them whom they call the clergy or ecclesiastical persons, to be free from the yoke of the civil magistrate? The ecclesiastical power extends itself to none other subjects than unto those which are called brethren, or members of the church.
77. _Eighthly_, There remaineth another difference in respect of the distinct and divided exercise of authority, for either power ceasing from its duty, or remitting punishment, that doth not (surely it ought not) prejudice the exercise of the other power, namely, if the magistrate cease to do his duty, or do neglect to punish, with secular punishment, those malefactors who, by profession, are church members nevertheless, it is in the power of the governors of the church, by the bridle of ecclesiastical discipline, to curb such men; yea also, by virtue of their office, they are bound to do it, and on the other part, the magistrate may and ought to punish in life and limb, honours or goods, notwithstanding of the offender's repentance or reconciliation with the church.
78. Therefore, the one sword being put up in the scabbard, it is free, and often necessary, to draw the other. Neither power is bound to cast out or receive him whom the other doth cast forth or receive the reason whereof is, because the ecclesiastical ministry doth chiefly respect the repentance to salvation, and gaining of the sinner's soul, wherefore it also embraceth all kinds of wicked men repenting, and receiveth them into the bosom of the church; the magistrate proposeth to himself another and much differing scope, for even repenting offenders are by him punished, both that justice and the laws may be satisfied, as also to terrify others,-hence it is that absolution from ecclesiastic censure freeth not at all the delinquent from civil judgment and the external sword.
79. Seeing, then, there are so many and so great differences of both offices, and seeing also that the function of ministers and elders of the church is not at all contained in the office of the magistrate, neither, on the other part, is this comprehended within that, magistrates shall no less sin in usurping ecclesiastical power, ministering holy things, ordaining ministers, or exercising discipline ecclesiastical, than ministers should sin in rushing into the borders of the magistrate, and in thrusting themselves into his calling.
80. Neither are those powers more mingled one with another, or less distinguished, where the magistrate is a Christian than where he is an infidel, for as in a believing father, and in an infidel father, the rights of a father are the same, so in a Christian magistrate, and in an infidel magistrate, the rights of magistrates are the same; so that to the magistrate converted to the Christian faith there is no accession of new right, or increase of civil power, although being endued with true faith and piety, he is made more fit and willing to the undergoing of his office and the doing of his duty.
81. So, then, the word of G.o.d and the law of Christ, which by so evident difference separateth and distinguisheth ecclesiastical government from the civil, forbiddeth the Christian magistrate to enter upon or usurp the ministry of the word and sacraments, or the judicial dispensing of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to invade the church government, or to challenge to himself the right of both swords, spiritual and corporal; but if any magistrate (which G.o.d forbid) should dare to arrogate to himself so much, and to enlarge his skirts so far, the church shall then straightway be constrained to complain justly, and cry out, that though the Pope is changed, yet popedom remaineth still.
82. It is unlawful, moreover, to a Christian magistrate to withstand the practice and execution of ecclesiastical discipline (whether it be that which belongs to a particular church, or the matter be carried to a cla.s.s or synod). Now the magistrate withstandeth the ecclesiastic discipline, either by prohibitions and unjust laws, or, by his evil example, stirring up and inciting others to the contempt thereof, or to the trampling it under foot.
83. Surely the Christian magistrate (if at any time he give any grievous scandal to the church), seeing he also is a member of the church, ought nowise disdain to submit himself to the power of the keys; neither is this to be marvelled at, for even as the office of the minister of the church is nowise subordinate and subjected to the civil power, but the person of the minister, as he is a member of the commonwealth, is subject thereto, so the civil power itself, or the magistrate, as a magistrate, is not subjected to ecclesiastical power; yet that man, who is a magistrate, ought (as he is a member of the church) to be under the church's censure of his manners, after the example of the emperor Theodosius, unless he will despise and set at nought ecclesiastical discipline, and indulge the swelling pride of the flesh.
84. If any man should again object that the magistrate is not indeed to resist ecclesiastical government, yet that the abuses thereof are to be corrected and taken away by him, the answer is ready. In the worst and most troublesome times, or in the decayed and troubled estate of things, when the ordinance of G.o.d in the church is violently turned into tyranny, to the treading down of true religion, and to the oppressing of the professors thereof, and when nothing almost is sound or whole, divers things are yielded to be lawful to G.o.dly magistrates, which are not ordinarily lawful for them, that so to extraordinary diseases extraordinary remedies may be applied. So also the magistrate abusing his power unto tyranny, and making havoc of all, it is lawful to resist him by some extraordinary ways and means, which are not ordinarily to be allowed.
85. Yet ordinarily, and by common or known law and right in settled churches, if any man have recourse to the magistrate to complain, that, through abuse of ecclesiastical discipline, injury is done to him, or if any sentence of the pastors and elders of the church, whether concerning faith or discipline, do displease or seem unjust unto the magistrate himself, it is not for that cause lawful to draw those ecclesiastical causes to a civil tribunal, or to bring in a kind of political or civil popedom.
86. What then? Shall it be lawful ordinarily for ministers and elders to do what they list? Or shall the governors in the churches, glorying in the law, by their transgression dishonour G.o.d? G.o.d forbid. For first, if they shall trespa.s.s in anything against the magistrate or munic.i.p.al laws, whether by intermeddling in judging of civil causes, or otherwise disturbing the peace and order of the commonwealth, they are liable to civil trial and judgments, and it is in the power of the magistrate to restrain and punish them.
87. Again, it hath been before showed, that to ecclesiastical evils ecclesiastical remedies are appointed and fitted, for the church is, no less than the commonwealth, through the grace of G.o.d, sufficient to itself in reference unto her own end, and as in the commonwealth, so in the church, the error of inferior judgments and a.s.semblies, or their evil government, is to be corrected by superior judgments and a.s.semblies, and so still by them of the same order, lest one order be confounded with another, or one government be intermingled with another government. What shall now the adversaries of ecclesiastical power object here, which those who admit not the yoke of the magistrate may not be ready, in like manner, to transfer against the civil judicatories and government of the commonwealth, seeing it happeneth sometimes that the commonwealth is no less ill governed than the church?