Again, our Saviour Christ’s commission to his apostles and disciples, was to proclaim his kingdom, not present, but to come; and to teach all nations, and to baptize them that should believe; and to enter into the houses of them that should receive them, and where they were not received, to shake off the dust of their feet against them; but not to call for fire from heaven to destroy them, nor to compel them to obedience by the sword. In all which there is nothing of power, but of persuasion. He sent them out as sheep unto wolves, not as kings to their subjects. They had not in commission to make laws; but to obey, and teach obedience to laws made; and consequently they could not make their writings obligatory canons, without the help of the sovereign civil power. And therefore the Scripture of the New Testament is there only law, where the lawful civil power hath made it so. And there also the king, or sovereign, maketh it a law to himself; by which he subjecteth himself, not to the doctor or apostle that converted him, but to God himself and his Son Jesus Christ, as immediately as did the apostles themselves. [Sidenote: Of the power of councils to make the Scriptures law.] That which may seem to give the New Testament, in respect of those that have embraced Christian doctrine, the force of laws, in the times and places of persecution, is the decrees they made amongst themselves in their synod. For we read (_Acts_ xv. 28) the style of the council of the apostles, the elders, and the whole Church, in this manner; _It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things, &c_; which is a style that signifieth a power to lay a burthen on them that had received their doctrine. Now _to lay a burthen on another_, seemeth the same as _to oblige_; and therefore the acts of that council were laws to the then Christians. Nevertheless, they were no more laws than are these other precepts, _Repent; be baptized; keep the commandments; believe the gospel; come unto me; sell all that thou hast; give it to the poor_; and, _follow me_; which are not commands, but invitations, and callings of men to Christianity, like that of _Isaiah_ lv. 1; _Ho, every man that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, come, and buy wine and milk without money_. For first, the apostles’ power was no other than that of our Saviour, to invite men to embrace the kingdom of God; which they themselves acknowledged for a kingdom, not present, but to come; and they that have no kingdom, can make no laws. And secondly, if their acts of council were laws, they could not without sin be disobeyed. But we read not any where, that they who received not the doctrine of Christ, did therein sin; but that they died in their sins; that is, that their sins against the laws to which they owed obedience, were not pardoned. And those laws were the laws of nature, and the civil laws of the state, whereto every Christian man had by pact submitted himself.