A92138:1450
The divine right of church-government and excommunication
The divine right of church-government and excommunication: or a peaceable dispute for the perfection of the holy scripture in point of ceremonies and church government; in which the removal of the Service-book is justified, the six books of Tho: Erastus against excommunication are briefly examined; with a vindication of that eminent divine Theod: Beza against the aspersions of Erastus, the arguments of Mr. William Pryn, Rich: Hooker, Dr. Morton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. John Forbes, and the doctors of Aberdeen; touching will-worship, ceremonies, imagery, idolatry, things indifferent, an ambulatory government; the due and just powers of the magistrate in matters of religion, and the arguments of Mr. Pryn, in so far as they side with Erastus, are modestly discussed. To which is added, a brief tractate of scandal ... / By Samuel Rutherfurd, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Published by authority.The divine right of church-government and excommunication: or a peacable dispute for the perfection of the holy scripture in point of ceremonies and church government; in which the removal of the Service-book is justifi'd, the six books of Tho: Erastus against excommunication are briefly examin'd; with a vindication of that eminent divine Theod: Beza against the aspersions of Erastus, the arguments of Mr. William Pryn, Rich: Hooker, Dr. Morton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. John Forbes, and the doctors of Aberdeen; touching will-worship, ceremonies, imagery, idolatry, things indifferent, an ambulatory government; the due and just powers of the magistrate in matters of religion, and the arguments of Mr. Pryn, in so far as they side with Erastus, are modestly discussed. To which is added, a brief tractate of scandal ... / By Samuel Rutherfurd, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Published by authority.
London: printed by John Field for Christopher Meredith, 1646
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.
III. According to that third member of our seventh Distinction;1 The unjust and evil exercise of the Ministerial power, is obnoxious to the magistrate as the magistrate, thus, in that he beareth the sword against all evil doers, Ro. 13. 1. The magistrate as the magistrate doth only command well doing, in order to praise and a good name, or temporal reward amongst men, Rom. 13. 3. Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the power, 1 Tim. 5. 17. Matth. 10. 10. Nor can the magistrate as the magistrate promise, or command the Elders to feed the Flock, with the promise of the reward that Peter promiseth, 1 Pet. 5. 4. to wit, That when the chief shepherd shall appear; they shall receive a Crown of glory that fadeth not away. The magistrate as a Preacher (if he be one, as David and Solomon were both) or as a godly religious Christian man, may hold forth such a promise, but not as a Magistrate, and upon the same ground the ⟨p. 549⟩Magistrate as the Magistrate cannot forbid careless, unsound preaching, and rigorous and tyrannical ruling or rather domineering over the Flock, under the pain of death eternal: for he can but kill the body, and hath but the carnal and temporal sword, Rom. 13. 4. and so he can inhibit ill doing only in order to temporary punishment, and though the duty of the former be spiritual, and the sin of the latter also, yet the external man is capable only of the Magistrates promises and threatenings, as they respect evil or good temporary; so that it is a wonder to me, that M. Pryn or any learned man can say that magistrates can make Laws to bind the conscience, sure it is ill divinity. 2. If there never had been sin, there should have been no2 government but of Fathers and Husbands, there should have been no magistratical dominion, not any magistratical allurement to welldoing by temporal rewards, not any terrifying from evil doing, from fear of the sword, death, stripes, or bands, and God governed the Apostolic Church, and they attained the Crown and supernatural end of life eternal, without the accessory hire of a a temporary reward from the magistrate, and the subsidy of his sword;