The Divine Right of Church Government: Wherein it is proved that the Presbyterian government, by preaching and ruling elders, in sessional, Presbyterial and synodical assemblies, may lay the only lawful claim to a divine right, according to the Holy Scriptures
Religion
The Divine Right of Church Government: Wherein it is proved that the Presbyterian government, by preaching and ruling elders, in sessional, Presbyterial and synodical assemblies, may lay the only lawful claim to a divine right, according to the Holy Scriptures
Presbyterian Church -- Government
3. Supports the laws of God with his secular authority, as a keeper of
the tables, enjoining and commanding, under civil penalties, all under
his dominion, strictly and inviolably to observe the same: as "Josiah
made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God," 2
Chron. xxxiv. 33. Nehemiah made the sabbath to be sanctified, and
strange wives to be put away, Neb. xii. 13, &c. Yea, Nebuchadnezzar, a
heathen king, decreed, that "Whosoever should speak amiss of the God of
Shadrach," &c., "should be cut in pieces, and their houses made a
dunghill," Dan. iii. 28, 29. And Darius decreed, "That in every dominion
of his kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel," &c., Dan.
vi. 26, 27.
And as he strengthens the laws and ordinances of God by his civil
authority, so he ratifies and establishes within his dominions the just
and necessary decrees of the Church in synods and councils (which are
agreeable to God's word) by his civil sanction.
4. Judges and determines definitively with a consequent political
judgment, or judgment of political discretion, concerning the things
judged and determined antecedently by the Church, in reference to his
own act. Whether he will approve such ecclesiasticals or not; and in
what manner he will so approve, or do otherwise by his public authority;
for he is not a brutish agent, (as papists would have him,) to do
whatsoever the Church enjoins him unto blind obedience, but is to act
prudently and knowingly in all his office; and therefore the judgment of
discerning (which belongs to every Christian, for the well-ordering of
his own act) cannot be denied to the Christian magistrate, in respect of
his office.
5. Takes care politically, that even matters and ordinances merely and
formally ecclesiastical, be duly managed by ecclesiastical persons
orderly called thereto. Thus Hezekiah commanded the priests and Levites
to do their duties, 2 Chron. xxix. 5, 24, and the people to do theirs, 2
Chron. xxx. 1; and for this he is commended, that therein he did cleave
unto the Lord, and observed his precepts which he had commanded Moses, 2
Kings xviii. 6. Thus when the king is commanded to observe and do all
the precepts of the law, the Lord (as orthodox divines do judge)
intended that he should keep them, not only as a private man, but as a
king, by using all care and endeavor that all his subjects with him
perform all duties to God and man, Deut. xvii. 18-20.
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