B21048:13
A discourse about civil government in a new plantation whose design is religion written…
A discourse about civil government in a new plantation whose design is religion written many years since by that reverend and worthy minister of the Gospel John Cotton ; and now published by some undertakers of a new plantation for general direction and information.
printed by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, 1663
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.
1 In some Countries there is no Church of Christ, all the inhabitants being Heathen men and Idolaters; and amongst those who are called Christians, the number of the Churches of Christ will be found to be so small, and the Members of them so f•w and mean, that it is impossible that the Right and Power of choosing Civil Magistrates in all places, should belong to the Churches of Christ.
1 In some Countreys there is no Church of Christ, all the inhabitants being Heathen men and Idolaters; and amongst those who are called Christians, the number of the Churches of Christ will be found to be so small, and the Members of them so f•w and mean, that it is impossible that the Right and Power of choosing Civil Magistrates in all places, should belong to the Churches of Christ.
2. Nor have the Churches countenance of State in all Countries, but are under Restraint and Persecution in some; as the Jews in Egypt under Pharaoh, and in the Captivity in Babylon, and the Christian Churches 300 years after Christ persecuted by Roman Emperors: and in these days those Reformed Churches sub cruce in Antwerp, and other Popish Countries.
2. Nor have the Churches countenance of State in all Countreys, but are under Restraint and Persecution in some; as the Jews in Aegypt under Pharaoh, and in the Captivity in Babylon, and the Christian Churches 300 years after Christ persecuted by Roman Emperours: and in these dayes those Reformed Churches sub cruce in Antwerp, and other Popish Countreys.
3. In some Countries the Churches are indeed under the Protection of Magistrates, as Foreigners, permitted quietly to sit down under their Wings: but neither are the Members capable of Magistracy there; nor have they power of Voting in the choice of Magistrates: Such was that Church of Strangers gathered in London by Johannes Als, with allowance of State under the Broad Seal of England in Edw. 6. Such are the Dutch and French Churches in England, and other Churches in the Netherlands at this day.