The meanest Christian according to his knowledge and grace to be preferred before the highest, who have received none or less grace of Christ.
In this respect every Christian in the church, man or woman, if of more knowledge and grace of Christ, ought to be of higher esteem, concerning religion and Christianity, than all the princes in the world who have either none or less grace or knowledge of Christ: although in civil things all civil reverence, honour, and obedience ought to be yielded by all men.
A true minister of Christ ought to walk by another rule than the command of civil authority in spiritual causes.
Therefore, if in matters of religion the king command what is contrary to Christ’s rule, though according to his persuasion and conscience, who sees not that, according to the similitude, he ought not to be obeyed? Yea, and (in case) boldly, with spiritual force and power, he ought to be resisted. And if any officer of the church of Christ shall out of baseness yield to the command of the prince, to the danger of the church and souls committed to his charge, the souls that perish, notwithstanding the prince’s command, shall be laid to his charge.
Former positions compared with this similitude, and found to contradict each other.
If so, then I rejoin thus: how agree these truths of this similitude with those former positions, viz., that the civil magistrate is keeper of both tables, that he is to see the church do her duty, that he ought to establish the true religion, suppress and punish the false, and so consequently must discern, judge, and determine what the true gathering and governing of the church is, what the duty of every minister of Christ is, what the true ordinances are, and what the true administrations of them; and where men fail, correct, punish, and reform by the civil sword? I desire it may be answered, in the fear and presence of Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, if this be not—according to the similitude, though contrary to their scope in proposing of it—to be governor of the ship of the church, to see the master, pilot, and mariners do their duty, in setting the course, steering the ship, trimming the sails, keeping the watch, &c., and where they fail, to punish them; and therefore, by undeniable consequence, to judge and determine what their duties are, when they do right, and when they do wrong: and this not only to manifest error, (for then they say every passenger may reprove) but in their ordinary course and practice.
The similitude of the magistrate prescribing to the physician in civil things, but the physician to the magistrate concerning his body.
The similitude of a physician obeying the prince in the body politic, but prescribing to the prince concerning the prince’s body, wherein the prince, unless the physician manifestly err, is to be obedient to the physician, and not to be judge of the physician in his art, but to be ruled and judged as touching the state of his body by the physician:—I say this similitude and many others suiting with the former of a ship, might be alleged to prove the distinction of the civil and spiritual estate, and that according to the rule of the Lord Jesus in the gospel, the civil magistrate is only to attend the calling of the civil magistracy concerning the bodies and goods of the subjects, and is himself, if a member of the church and within, subject to the power of the Lord Jesus therein, as any member of the church is, 1 Cor. v.
CHAP. CXXVII.
Peace. Dear Truth, you have uprightly and aptly untied the knots of that eleventh head; let me present you with the twelfth head, which is,