A92140:956
A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience tending to resolve doubts moved
A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience tending to resolve doubts moved by Mr. John Goodwin, John Baptist, Dr. Jer. Taylor, the Belgic Arminians, Socinians, and other authors contending for lawless liberty, or licentious toleration of sects and heresies. / By Samuel Rutherfurd professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews.A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience tending to resolve doubts moved by Mr. John Goodwin, John Baptist, Dr. Jer. Taylor, the Belgick Arminians, Socinians, and other authors contending for lawlesse liberty, or licentious toleration of sects and heresies. / By Samuel Rutherfurd professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews.
London: printed by R.I. for Andrew Crook, 1649
Chapter 28: Divers other Arguments for pretended Toleration, answered.
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.
Object. 15. If the Magistrate be above the Church and Head thereof, and to judge their matters, and if he have his power from the people (to govern the Church) will it not follow that the people ⟨p. 402⟩[…] ⟨p. 403⟩[…] ⟨p. 404⟩as the people have originally, as men, a power to govern the Church to see her do her duty, to reform and correct her?
Object. 15. If the Magistrate be above the Church and Head thereof, and to judge their matters, and if he have his power from the people (to govern the Church) will it not follow that the people ⟨p. 402⟩〈…〉 ⟨p. 403⟩〈…〉 ⟨p. 404⟩as the people have originally, as men, a power to govern the Church to see her doe her dutie, to reform and correct her?
Answ. Though the Magistrate punish false Teachers by the Sword,1 he is not for that a Church governor, far less the head of the Church, no more then he is the head of the Church, because he defends them against their persecuting enemies, and by his sword procureth civill peace and protection to their assemblies, persons and estates; for doing any thing in favour of the Church doth not make Cyrus, Artaxerxes, Darius, spiritual Officers, and give them a headship over the Church. 2. The Christian Magistrate having power from the peoples free election to employ his sword for the external peace of the Church, hath not therefore power of governing the Church from the people. 1. Because the civill using of the sword for the outward peace of the Church, is not a governing of the Church, but the civil external and corporal shielding of them. 2. It no more followeth that the people as men have the ruling of the Church, because they chose a godly Magistrate to watch over their external peace then the people as Christians can be said to have a power to preach the word and administer the Sacraments or Seals of the covenant, because the people as Christian men choose ministers who have power from Christ to preach & administer the Seals, for to choose a governor to rule over them is no act of government, no more then the wives choosing of the Husband to be her head, and govern the family is an act of the Headship and governing of the Family; nor do the people in choosing a King, exercise an act of royal and Kingly power over themselves by such an act of choosing; nor doth an Army in choosing a Captain General over themselves, in so doing exercise any act of a Captain General over themselves. 3. Neither do the people as men, but as Christian men walking by the rule of the Word (which is a Catholic directory to all men and all societies in all moral duties,