A42763:124
CXI propositions concerning the ministry and government of the ChurchCXI propositions concerning the ministerie and government of the Church
Edinburgh: printed by Evan Tyler, 1647
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 God for the good and profit of the Subjects) yet it belongs to their power truly and properly to exercise dominion, to hold principality, 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 no wise to be Lords over the house, or to govern as Lords, or Lordlike to rule; yea in brief, this is the difference between the civill Magistrate and the Ecclesiastical Ministry, in respect of those which 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.
Emperours, Kings, and other Magistrates are indeed appointed fathers of the Countrey, but they are withall 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 God for the good and profit of the Subjects) yet it belongs to their power truely and properly to exercise dominion, to hold principality, to proceed imperiously. It is indeed the duety of Ministers and Rulers of the Church to oversee, to feed as shepherds, to correct and rectifie, to bear the keyes, to bee Stewards in the house of Christ, but in no wise to bee Lords over the house, or to governe as Lords, or Lordlike to rule; yea in brief, this is the difference between the civill Magistrate and the Ecclesiasticall Ministery, in respect of those which are committed to their trust, that the lot of the former is to bee served or ministred unto, the lot of the latter to minister or serve.