before I have written, and those civil courts are as lawful, consisting
of natural men as of godly persons, then what consequences necessarily
will follow I have before mentioned. And I add, according to this
conclusion it must follow, that, if the most godly persons yield not to
once or twice admonition, as is maintained by the answerer, they must
necessarily be esteemed obstinate persons; for if they were godly, saith
he, they would yield. Must it not then be said, as it was by one passing
sentence of banishment upon some whose godliness was acknowledged, that
he that commanded the judge not to respect the poor in the cause of
judgment, commands him not to respect the holy or the godly person?
[Sidenote: The doctrine of persecution drives the most godly persons out
of the world.]
Hence I could name the place and time when a godly man, a most desirable
person for his trade, &c., yet something different in conscience,
propounded his willingness and desire to come to dwell in a certain town
in New England; it was answered by a chief of the place, This man differs
from us, and we desire not to be troubled. So that in conclusion, for
no other reason in the world, the poor man, though godly, useful, and
peaceable, could not be admitted to a civil being and habitation on the
common earth, in that wilderness, amongst them.
The latter part of the answer, concerning the heretic, or obstinate
person, to be excommunicated, and the scandalous offender to be punished
in the commonweal, which neither of both come near our question: I have
spoken [of] I fear too largely already.
_Peace._ Mr. Cotton concludes with a confident persuasion of having
removed the grounds of that great error, viz., that persons are not to be
persecuted for cause of conscience.
[Sidenote: The Bloody Tenent.]
_Truth._ And I believe, dear Peace, it shall appear to them that, with
fear and trembling at the word of the Lord, examine these passages, that
the charge of error reboundeth back, even such an error as may well be
called, The Bloody Tenent—so directly contradicting the spirit, and mind,
and practice of the Prince of peace; so deeply guilty of the blood of
souls, compelled and forced to hypocrisy in a spiritual and soul-rape;
so deeply guilty of the blood of the souls under the altar, persecuted
in all ages for the cause of conscience, and so destructive to the civil
peace and welfare of all kingdoms, countries, and commonwealths.
CHAP. LXXXI.
_Peace._ To this conclusion, dear Truth, I heartily subscribe, and know
[that] the God, the Spirit, the Prince, the angels, and all the true
awaked sons of peace, will call thee blessed.
_Truth._ How sweet and precious are these contemplations, but oh! how
sweet the actions and fruitions?
_Peace._ _Thy lips drop as the honey-comb, honey and milk are under thy
tongue_; oh! that these drops, these streams, might flow without a stop
or interruption!
_Truth._ The glorious white troopers (Rev. xix.) shall in time be
mounted, and he that is the most high Prince of princes, and Lord
General of generals mounted upon the word of truth and meekness, Psalm
xlv., shall triumph gloriously, and renew our meetings. But hark, what
noise is this?
[Sidenote: Wars for conscience.]
_Peace._ These are the doleful drums, and shrill-sounding trumpets, the
roaring, murdering cannons, the shouts of conquerors, the groans of
wounded, dying, slaughtered righteous with the wicked. Dear Truth, how
long? how long these dreadful sounds and direful sights? how long before
my glad return and restitution?
_Truth._ Sweet Peace, who will believe my true report? yet true it is,
if I were once believed, blessed Truth and Peace should not so soon be
parted.
_Peace._ Dear Truth, what welcome hast thou found of late beyond thy
former times, or present expectations?
[Sidenote: The blessed Magna Charta.]
_Truth._ Alas! my welcome changes as the times, and strongest swords
and arms prevail: were I believed in this, that Christ is not delighted
with the blood of men, but shed his own for his bloodiest enemies—that
by the word of Christ no man for gainsaying Christ, or joining with
the enemy anti-christ, should be molested with the civil sword. Were
this foundation laid as the Magna Charta of highest liberties, and good
security given on all hands for the preservation of it, how soon should
every brow and house be stuck with olive branches?
_Peace._ This heavenly invitation makes me bold once more to crave thy
patient ear and holy tongue. Error’s impatient and soon tired, but thou
art light, and like the Father of lights, unwearied in thy shinings. Lo
here! what once again I present to thy impartial censure.
A MODEL OF CHURCH AND CIVIL POWER; COMPOSED BY MR. COTTON AND THE
MINISTERS OF NEW ENGLAND, AND SENT TO THE CHURCH AT SALEM, AS A FURTHER
CONFIRMATION OF THE BLOODY DOCTRINE OF PERSECUTION FOR CAUSE OF
CONSCIENCE, EXAMINED AND ANSWERED.
CHAP. LXXXII.
_Truth._ What hast thou there?
[Sidenote: A strange model of a church and commonweal, after the Mosaical
and Jewish pattern.]
_Peace._ Here is a combination of thine own children against thy very
life and mine: here is a model, framed by many able, learned, and godly
hands, of such a church and commonweal as wakens Moses from his unknown
grave, and denies Jesus yet to have seen the earth.
_Truth._ Begin, sweet Peace, read and propound. My hand shall not be
tired with holding the balances of the sanctuary: do thou put in, and
I shall weigh as in the presence of Him whose pure eyes cannot behold
iniquity.
[Sidenote: Matt. xvi. 19, with John xx. 23, Rom. xiii. 1, Matt. x. 18,
Tit. iii. 1, Acts xv. 20, Isa. xlix. 23, Gal. iii. 28.]
_Peace._ Thus, then, speaks the preface or entrance: “Seeing God hath
given a distinct power to church and commonweal, the one spiritual
(called the power of the keys), the other civil (called the power of
the sword), and hath made the members of both societies subject to both
authorities, so that every soul in the church is subject to the higher
powers in the commonweal, and every member of the commonweal, being a
member of the church, is subject to the laws of Christ’s kingdom, and
in him to the censures of the church:—the question is, how the civil
state and the church may dispense their several governments without
infringement and impeachment of the power and honour of the one or of
the other, and what bounds and limits the Lord hath set between both the
administrations.”
[Sidenote: Christ’s power in his church confessed to be above all
magistrates’ in spiritual things.]
_Truth._ From that conclusion, dear Peace, that “every member of the
commonweal, being a member of the church, is subject to the laws of
Christ’s kingdom, and in Him to the censures of the church:”—I observe,
that they grant the church of Christ in spiritual causes to be superior
and over the highest magistrates in the world, if members of the church.
Hence therefore I infer, may she refuse to receive, and may also cast
forth any, yea, even the highest, if obstinate in sin, out of her
spiritual society.
Hence, in this spiritual society, that soul who hath most of Christ,
most of his Spirit, is most (spiritually) honourable, according to the
scriptures quoted, Acts xv. 20; Isa. xlix. 23; Gal. iii. 28.
And if so, how can this stand with their common tenent that the civil
magistrate must keep the first table: set up, reform the church: and be
judge and governor in all ecclesiastical as well as civil causes?[205]
[Sidenote: Isa. xlix. 23, lamentably wrested.]
Secondly, I observe the lamentable wresting of this one scripture, Isa.
xlix. 23. Sometimes this scripture must prove the power of the civil
magistrates, kings, and governors over the church in spiritual causes,
&c. Yet here this scripture is produced to prove kings and magistrates
(in spiritual causes) to be censured and corrected by the same church. It
is true in several respects, he that is a governor may be a subject; but
in one and the same spiritual respect to judge and to be judged, to sit
on the bench and stand at the bar of Christ Jesus, is as impossible as to
reconcile the east and west together.
CHAP. LXXXIII.
_The first head, that both jurisdictions may stand together._
[Sidenote: The first head examined. John xvii. 36. Jer. xxix. 7. Ezra
vii. 23, Rom. i. 2, 3, 1 Tim. ii. 2.]
_Peace._ “Whereas divers affecting transcending power to themselves over
the church, have persuaded the princes of the world that the kingdom of
Christ in his church cannot rise or stand without the falls of those
commonweals wherein it is set up, we do believe and profess the contrary
to this suggestion; the government of the one being of this world, the
other not; the church helping forward the prosperity of the commonweal by
means only ecclesiastical and spiritual; the commonweal helping forward
her own and the church’s felicity by means political or temporal:—the
falls of commonweals being known to arise from their scattering and
diminishing the power of the church, and the flourishing of commonweals
with the well ordering of the people, even in moral and civil virtues,
being observed to arise from the vigilant administration of the holy
discipline of the church: as Bodin, a man not partial to church
discipline, plainly testifieth. The vices in the free estate of Geneva,
_que legibus nusquam vindicantur_, by means of church discipline, _sine
vi et tumultu coercentur_; the Christian liberty not freeing us from
subjection to authority, but from enthralment and bondage unto sin.”[206]
[Sidenote: The civil commonweal and the spiritual commonweal, the church,
not inconsistent, though independent the one on the other.]
_Truth._ _Ans._ From this conclusion, that the church, or kingdom of
Christ, may be set up without prejudice of the commonweal, according to
John xviii. 36, _My kingdom is not of this world_, &c., I observe, that
although the kingdom of Christ, the church, and the civil kingdom or
government be not inconsistent, but that both may stand together; yet
that they are independent according to that scripture, and that therefore
there may be, as formerly I have proved, flourishing commonweals and
societies of men, where no church of Christ abideth. And, secondly, the
commonweal may be in perfect peace and quiet, notwithstanding the church,
the commonweal of Christ, be in distractions and spiritual oppositions,
both against their religions and sometimes amongst themselves, as the
church of Christ in Corinth troubled with divisions, contentions, &c.
Secondly, I observe, it is true the church helpeth forward the prosperity
of the commonweal by spiritual means, Jer. xxix. 7. The prayers of God’s
people procure the peace of the city where they abide; yet, that Christ’s
ordinances and administrations of worship are appointed and given by
Christ to any civil state, town, or city, as is implied by the instance
of Geneva, that I confidently deny.
[Sidenote: Christ’s ordinances put upon a whole city or nation, may more
civilize, and moralize, but never Christianize them.]
The ordinances and discipline of Christ Jesus, though wrongfully and
profanely applied to natural and unregenerate men, may cast a blush
of civility and morality upon them, as in Geneva and other places—for
the shining brightness of the very shadow of Christ’s ordinances casts
a shame upon barbarism and incivility—yet withal, I affirm, that the
misapplication of ordinances to unregenerate and unrepentant persons
hardens up their souls in a dreadful sleep and dream of their own blessed
estate, and sends millions of souls to hell in a secure expectation of a
false salvation.
CHAP. LXXXIV.
_The second head, concerning superiority of each power._
[Sidenote: The second head, concerning superiority of each power,
Rom. xiii. 1-3; Isa. xlix. 23. Luke xii. 14, John viii. 11. And
that _judicium_ of the church in lawsuits, 1 Cor. vi. 2, is only
_arbitrarium_, not _coactivum_.]
_Peace._ “Because contention may arise in future times which of these
powers under Christ is the greatest, as it hath been under anti-christ,
we conceive, first, that the power of the civil magistrate is superior
to the church policy in place, honours, dignity, earthly power, in the
world; and the church superior to him, being a member of the church,
ecclesiastically; that is, in a church way, ruling and ordering him by
spiritual ordinances according to God’s [word], for his soul’s health,
as any other member. So that all the power the magistrate hath over the
church is temporal, not spiritual; and all the power the church hath
over the magistrate is spiritual, not temporal. And as the church hath
no temporal power over the magistrate, _in ordine ad bonum spirituale_;
so the magistrate hath no spiritual power over the church _in ordine ad
bonum temporale_.
“Secondly, the delinquency of either party calleth for the exercise
of the power of terror from the other part; for no rulers ordained of
God are a terror to good works, but to evil, Rom. xiii. 3. So that if
the church offend, the offence of the church calleth upon the civil
magistrate, either to seek the healing thereof as a nursing father, by
his own grave advice and the advice of other churches; or else, if he
cannot so prevail, to put forth and exercise the superiority of his power
in redressing what is amiss, according to the quality of the offence, by
the course of civil justice.
“On the other side, if the magistrate being a member of the church
shall offend, the offence calleth upon the church either to seek the
healing thereof in a brotherly way, by conviction of his sin; or else,
if they cannot prevail, then to exercise the superiority of their power
in removing of the offence, and recovering of the offender, by church
censures.”
[Sidenote: Answer. A contradiction, to make the magistrate supreme judge
in spiritual causes, and yet to have no spiritual power.]
_Truth._ If the end of spiritual or church power is _bonum spirituale_, a
spiritual good: and the end of civil or state power is _bonum temporale_,
a temporal good; and secondly, if the magistrate have no spiritual power
to attain to his temporal end, no more than a church hath any temporal
power to attain to her spiritual end, as is confessed:—I demand, if this
be not a contradiction against their own disputes, tenets, and practices,
touching that question of persecution for cause of conscience. For if the
magistrate be supreme judge, and so, consequently, give supreme judgment,
sentence, and determination, in matters of the first table and of the
church, and be _custos utriusque tabulæ_, [the] keeper of both tables
(as they speak), and yet have no spiritual power as is affirmed—how can
he determine what the true church and ordinances are, and then set them
up with the power of the sword? How can he give judgment of a false
church, a false ministry, a false doctrine, false ordinances, and with a
civil sword pull them down, if he have no spiritual power, authority, or
commission from Christ Jesus for these ends and purposes?
Further, I argue thus: If the civil officer of state must determine,
judge, and punish in spiritual causes, his power, authority, and
commission must be either spiritual or civil, or else he hath none at
all: and so acts without a commission and warrant from the Lord Jesus;
and so, consequently, [he] stands guilty at the bar of Christ Jesus, to
answer for such his practice as a transcendent delinquent.
[Sidenote: The civil magistrate confessed to have no civil power over the
souls of men: nor spiritual.]
Now for civil power, these worthy authors confess that the government of
the civil magistrate extendeth no further than over the bodies and goods
of the subject, and therefore hath no civil power over the soul, and
therefore, say I, not in soul-causes.
_Secondly._ It is here confessed, in this passage, that to attain
his civil end, or _bonum temporale_, he hath no spiritual power; and
therefore, of necessity, out of their own mouths must they be judged
for provoking the magistrate, without either civil or spiritual power,
to judge, punish, and persecute in spiritual causes; and to fear and
tremble, lest they come near those frogs which proceed out of the mouth
of the dragon, and beast, and false prophet, who, by the same arguments
which the authors here use, stir up the kings of the earth to make war
against the Lamb, Christ Jesus, and his followers, Rev. xvii. 14.
CHAP. LXXXV.
In the next place, I observe upon the point of delinquency, such a
conclusion as heaven and earth may stand amazed at. If the church offend,
say they, after advice refused, in conclusion the magistrate must
redress, that is punish the church, that is in church offences and cases,
by a course of civil justice.
On the other side, if the civil magistrate offend after admonition used,
and not prevailing, in conclusion the church proceeds to censure, that is
to excommunication, as is afterward more largely proved by them.
[Sidenote: The magistrate and the church, by the author’s grounds, at
one and the same time, in one and the same cause, made the judges on the
bench and delinquents at the bar.]
Now I demand, if the church be a delinquent, who shall judge? It is
answered, the magistrate. Again, if the magistrate be a delinquent, I
ask who shall judge? It is answered, the church. Whence I observe—which
is monstrous in all cases in the world—that one person, to wit, the
church or magistrate, shall be at one time the delinquent at the bar
and the judge upon the bench. This is clear thus: The church must judge
when the magistrate offends; and yet the magistrate must judge when the
church offends. And so, consequently, in this case [the magistrate] must
judge, whether she contemn civil authority in the second table, for thus
dealing with him: or whether she have broken the rules of the first
table, of which (say they) God hath made him keeper and conserver. And
therefore, though the church make him a delinquent at the bar, yet by
their confession God hath made him a judge on the bench. What blood, what
tumults, have been and must be spilt upon these grounds?
_Peace._ Dear Truth, no question but the church may punish the magistrate
spiritually, in spiritual cases; and the magistrate may punish the
church civilly, in civil cases; but that for one and the same cause the
church must punish the magistrate, and the magistrate the church, this
seems monstrous, and needs explication.
[Sidenote: An illustration, demonstrating that the civil magistrate
cannot have power over the church in spiritual or church causes.]
_Truth._ Sweet Peace, I illustrate with this instance: A true church
of Christ, of which, according to the authors’ supposition, the
magistrate is a member, chooseth and calls one of her members to office.
The magistrate opposeth. The church, persuaded that the magistrates’
exceptions are insufficient—according to her privilege, which these
authors maintain against the magistrates’ prohibition—proceeds to ordain
her officer. The magistrate chargeth the church to have made an unfit and
unworthy choice, and, therefore, according to his place and power, and
according to his conscience and judgment, he suppresseth such an officer,
and makes void the church’s choice. Upon this the church complains
against the magistrate’s violation of her privileges given her by Christ
Jesus, and cries out that the magistrate is turned persecutor, and, not
prevailing with admonition, she proceeds to excommunication against him.
The magistrate, according to his conscience, endures not such profanation
of ordinances as he conceives; and therefore, if no advice and admonition
prevail, he proceeds against such obstinate abusers of Christ’s holy
ordinances (as the authors grant he may) in civil court of justice, yea,
and—I add according to the pattern of Israel—cuts them off by the sword,
as obstinate usurpers and profaners of the holy things of Christ.
[Sidenote: The punishments civil which the magistrate inflicts upon the
church for civil crimes, lawful and necessary.]
I demand, what help hath any poor church of Christ in this case, by
maintaining this power of the magistrate to punish the church of Christ,
I mean in spiritual and soul-cases? for otherwise I question not but he
may put all the members of the church to death justly, if they commit
crimes worthy thereof, as Paul spake, Acts xxv. 11.
Shall the church here fly to the pope’s sanctuary against emperors and
princes excommunicate, to wit, give away their crowns, kingdoms, or
dominions, and invite foreign princes to make war upon them and their
territories? The authors surely will disclaim this; and yet I shall prove
their tenets tend directly unto such a practice.
Or secondly, shall she say the magistrate is not a true magistrate,
because not able to judge and determine in such cases? This their
confession will not give them leave to say, because they cannot
deny unbelievers to be lawful magistrates: and yet it shall appear,
notwithstanding their confession to the contrary, their tenets imply that
none but a magistrate after their own conscience is a lawful magistrate.
Therefore, thirdly, they must ingenuously and honestly confess, that if
it be the duty of the magistrate to punish the church in spiritual cases,
he must then judge according to his conscience and persuasion, whatever
his conscience be: and then let all men judge into what a woful state
they bring both the civil magistrate and church of Christ, by such a
church-destroying and state-destroying doctrine.
_Peace._ Some will here say, in such a case either the magistrate or the
church must judge; either the spiritual or civil state must be supreme.
[_Truth._] I answer, if the magistrate be of another religion,—
[Sidenote: The true way of the God of peace in differences between the
church and the magistrate.]
First. What hath the church to judge him being without? 1 Cor. v. [12,
13.]
Secondly. If he be a member of the church, doubtless the church hath
power to judge, in spiritual and soul-cases, with spiritual and church
censures, all that are within, 1 Cor. v. 1-11.
Thirdly. If the church offend against the civil peace of the state, by
wronging the bodies or goods of any, the magistrate _bears not the sword
in vain_, Rom. xiii. 4, to correct any or all the members of the church.
And this I conceive to be the only way of the God of peace.
CHAP. LXXXVI.
_The third head concerns the end of both these powers._
[_Peace._] “First, the common and last end of both is God’s glory, and
man’s eternal felicity.
“Secondly. The proper ends—
“First, of commonwealth, is the procuring, preserving, increasing of
external and temporal peace and felicity of the state, in all godliness
and honesty, 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.
“Secondly, of the church, a begetting, preserving, increasing of internal
and spiritual peace and felicity of the church, in all godliness and
honesty, Esay. ii. 3, 4, and ix. 7. So that magistrates have power given
them from Christ in matters of religion, because they are bound to see
that outward peace be preserved, not in all ungodliness and dishonesty,
for such peace is Satanical; but in all godliness and honesty, for such
peace God aims at. And hence the magistrate is _custos_ of both the
tables of godliness, in the first of honesty, in the second for peace’s
sake. He must see that honesty be preserved within his jurisdiction, or
else the subject will not be _bonus cives_. He must see that godliness as
well as honesty be preserved, else the subject will not be _bonus vir_,
who is the best _bonus cives_. He must see that godliness and honesty be
preserved, or else himself will not be _bonu magistratus_.”[207]
_Truth._ In this passage here are divers particulars affirmed,
marvellously destructive both to godliness and honesty, though under a
fair mask and colour of both.
[Sidenote: The garden of the church and the wilderness of the world made
all one.]
First, it will appear that in spiritual things they make the garden
and the wilderness, as often I have intimated—I say the garden and the
wilderness, the church and the world, are all one: for thus,
If the powers of the world, or civil state, are bound to propose external
peace in all godliness for their end, and the end of the church be
to preserve internal peace in all godliness, I demand, if their end
(godliness) be the same, is not their power and state the same also?
unless they make the church subordinate to the commonwealth’s end, or the
commonweal subordinate to the church’s end, which—being the governor and
setter up of it, and so consequently the judge of it—it cannot be.
[Sidenote: The commonweal more charged by these authors with the worship
and ordinances, than the church.]