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
1. They differ in their efficient cause or author, whence they are
derived. Magistratical power is from God, the Creator and Governor of
the world, Rom. xiii. 1, 2, 4; and so belongs to all mankind, heathen or
Christian; ecclesiastical power is peculiarly from Jesus Christ our
Mediator, Lord of the Church, (who hath all power given him, and the
government of the Church laid upon his shoulder, as Eph. i. 22; Matt.
xxviii. 18, compared with Isa. ix. 16.) See Matt. vi. 19, and xviii. 18,
and xxviii. 19, 20; John xx. 21-23; 2 Cor. x. 8: and consequently
belongs properly to the Church, and to them that are within the Church,
1 Cor. v. 12, 13. Magistratical power in general is the ordinance of
God, Rom. xiii. 1, 2, 4; but magistratical power in particular, whether
it should be monarchical in a king, aristocratical in states,
democratical in the people, &c., is of men, called, therefore, a human
creature, or creation, 1 Pet. ii. 13; but ecclesiastical power, and
officers in particular, as well as general, are from Christ, Matt. xvi.
19, and xxviii. 18-20; Tit. iii. 10; 1 Cor. v. 13; 2 Cor. ii. For
officers, see Eph. iv. 11, 12; 1 Cor. xii. 28.
2. They differ in their material cause; whether it be the matter of
which they consist, in which they are seated, or about which they are
exercised. 1. In respect of the matter of which they consist, they much
differ. Ecclesiastical power consists of the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, which are exercised in the preaching of the word, dispensing the
sacraments, executing the censures, admonition, excommunication,
absolution, ordination of presbyters, &c.; but magistratical power
consists in the secular sword, which puts forth itself in making
statutes, inflicting fines, imprisonments, confiscations, banishments,
torments, death. 2. In respect of the matter or object about which they
are exercised, they much differ: for, the magistratical power is
exercised politically, about persons and things without the Church, as
well as within the church; but the ecclesiastical power is exercised
only upon them that are within the Church, 1 Cor. v. 13. The
magistratical power in some cases of treason, &c., banishes or otherwise
punishes even penitent persons: ecclesiastical power punishes no
penitent persons. The magistratical power punishes not all sorts of
scandal, but some: the ecclesiastical power punishes (if rightly
managed) all sorts of scandal.
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