A discourse about civil government in a new plantation whose design is religion written…

2. The second Extreme to be avoided, is, That these two different Orders and States, Ecclesiastical and Civil, be not set in opposition as contraries that one should destroy the other, but as coordinate States, in the same place reaching forth help mutually each to other, for the welfare of both, according to God: So that both Officers and Members of Churches be subject, in respect of the outward man, to the Civil Power of those who bear Rule in the Civil State according to God, and teach others so to do: And that ⟨image 5⟩⟨image 6⟩⟨p. 9⟩the Civil Magistrates and Officers, in regard of the inward man subject themselves Spiritually to the power of Chr st in Church-Ordinances, and by their Civil Power preserve the same in outward Peace and Purity; and this will best be attained, when the Pastor may say to the Magistrate, as Gregory Na•ianz•n wrote to the Magistrate of N•zianzum, Scio te ovem mei gregis esse sacri gregis sacram•ve•: I know thou art a sheep of my Flock a holy sheep of a holy Flock. Again, Cum Ch•isto imperas, cum C••isto etiam administras, •b eo est tibi gladius, ho•d narium à te pa•u••• qui dedit conservetur; that is, Thou rulest with Christ, and administerest to Christ; thou hast the Sword from him: let this gift which thou hast received from him, be kept pure for him. And when the Civil Magistrate in his Church-state, answereth Ambrose his description of a good Emperour: Ipse Imperator bonus in•ra Ecclesiam, non supra Ecclesiam est: A good Magistrate is within the Church, not above it. Lastly, when according to Junius his description of the Power of the Christian Magistrate in Church-matters, he accounts it his duty to embrace in Fellowship with the whole Church, ut verum Christi & Ecclesiae membrum the Laws given by God in the Church, and the means sanctified by him to nourish the inward man, and to protect and defend the same: [Tanquam Magistratus à Deo Ordinatus] for, saith he, As he is a Christian, he is sancta ovis de sancto Christi grege, (i. e. A holy sheep of Christ's holy flock. But as a Magistrate he is [Custos Ordinis vindexque publici;] that is, A preserver of public order. Such were (besides the good Kings of Judah) Constantine, Theodosius, &c. in some measure, though very defective. So much shall serve to have been spoken concerning the first Distinction.