A92138:1452
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.
As the Ambassadors of Christ craving spiritual subjection of conscience, and divine faith to those charges: But Magistrates as Magistrates hold forth in their Law-abstinence from those same sins of adultery, incest, murder; But, 1. Not to the1 consciences of their subjects, but to the outer man as Members of the common-wealth. 2. Not under the pain of eternal wrath and condemnation, before the judge of quick and dead: Magistrates as Magistrates have neither calling, office, place nor power to threaten or inflict eternal punishment; if Magistrates do persuade the equity of abstinence from adultery, incest, murder, in their Statutes, or Acts of Parliament, from the word of God, from the sixth and seventh command of the Decalogue, from the judgement and eternal punishment that followeth these sins, they so persuade not as Magistrates, but as Divines, and as godly and Christian men; yet my sense is not that the Magistrate can Lawfully command obedience in matters of Religion not understood or known by the subjects, that were to exact blind obedience; but my meaning is, that the Magistrate as the Magistrate holdeth not forth his commandments to teach and inform the conscience, as Pastors do, but he presupposeth that his mandates are known to be agreeable to the word of God, and proposeth them to the subjects to be obeyed. 3. Magistrates as Magistrates hold forth in their Law, abstinence ⟨p. 551⟩from these sins, not as the Ambassadors of Christ, craving subjection of conscience and divine faith to those charges, but only external obedience: for though Ministers as Ministers crave faith and subjection of conscience to all commandments and inhibitions, as in Christs stead, 2 Co. 5. 19 20. yet the Magistrate as the Magistrate doth not crave either faith or subjection of conscience, nor is he in Christs stead, to lay divine bands on the conscience, to submit the soul and conscience to believe and abstain, he is the dep••y of God as the God of Order, and as the Creator, and founder, and another of humane societies, and of Peace, to exact external obedience, and to lay bands on your hands, not to shed innocent blood, and on your body not to defile it with adultery, or incest, nor to violate the ch•st••y of your brother;