The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed and Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered, by Roger Williams CHAP. XCV. CHAP. XCV. Peace. In that fifth head they further say thus:— “Thirdly. In matters ecclesiastical we believe, first, that civil magistrates have no power to make or constitute laws about church affairs, which the Lord Jesus hath not ordained in his word for the well-ordering of the church; for the apostle solemnly chargeth Timothy, and in him all governors of the church, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, that the commandment given by him for the ordering of the church be kept without spot, unrebukeable, to the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15. And this commandment given in the word, the apostle saith, is able to make the man of God perfect in all righteousness, 2 Tim. iii. 17. And, indeed, the administration of all Christ’s affairs, doth immediately aim at spiritual and divine ends, as the worship of God, and the salvation of men’s souls: and, therefore, no law nor means can be devised by the wisdom or wit of man that can be fit or able to reach such ends; but use must be made of such only as the divine wisdom and holy will of God hath ordained. “Secondly. We believe the magistrate’s power in making laws about church affairs, is not only thus limited and restrained by Christ to matters which concern the substance of God’s worship and of church government, but also such as concern outward order: as in rites and ceremonies for uniformity’s sake. For we find not in the gospel, that Christ hath anywhere provided for the uniformity of churches, but only for their unity. “Paul, in matters of Christian liberty, commendeth the unity of their faith in the Holy Spirit, giving order that we should not judge nor condemn one another, in difference of judgment and practice of such things where men live to God on both sides, even though there were some error on one side, Rom. xiv. 1-6. How much less in things indifferent, where there may be no error on either side. “When the apostle directeth the church of Corinth, that all things be done decently and in order, he meant not to give power to church officers or to civil magistrates, to order whatever they should think meet for decency and order; but only to provide that all the ordinances of God be administered in the church decently, without unnatural or uncivil uncomeliness, as that of long hair, or women’s prophesying, or the like; and orderly, without confusion or disturbance of edification, as the speaking of many at once in the church. “Thirdly. We do nevertheless willingly grant, that magistrates, upon due and diligent search what is the counsel and will of God in his word concerning the right ordering of the church, may and ought to publish and declare, establish and ratify, such laws and ordinances as Christ hath appointed in his word for the well ordering of church affairs: both for the gathering of the church, and the right administration of all the ordinances of God amongst them, in such a manner as the Lord hath appointed to edification. The law of Artaxerxes, Ezra vii. 23, was not usurpation over the church’s liberty; but a royal and just confirmation of them: Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven:—for why should there be wrath against [the realm of] the king and his sons?” Truth. Dear Peace, methinks I see before mine eyes a wall daubed up, of which Ezekiel speaks, with untempered mortar. Here they restrain the magistrate from making laws, either concerning the substance or ceremony of religion, but such only as Christ hath commanded; and those, say they, they must publish and declare after the example of Artaxerxes. I shall herein perform two things: first, examine this magistrate’s duty to publish, declare, &c., such laws and ordinances as Christ hath appointed. Secondly, I shall examine that proof from Artaxerxes, Ezra vii. 23. God’s Israel desirous of Saul’s arm of flesh. In the first, methinks I hear the voice of the people of Israel, 1 Sam. viii. 5, Make us a king, that may rule over us after the manner of the nations: rejecting the Lord ruling over them by his holy word, in the mouth of his prophets, and sheltering themselves under an arm of flesh; which arm of flesh God gave them in his anger, and cut off again in his wrath, after he had persecuted David, the figure of Christ Jesus, who hath given his people the sceptre and sword of his word and Spirit, and refused a temporal crown or weapons in the dispensation of his kingdom. Where did the Lord Jesus or his messengers charge the civil magistrate, or direct Christians to petition him, to publish, declare, or establish by his arm of flesh and earthly weapons, the religion and worship of Christ Jesus? I find the beast and false prophet, whose rise and doctrine is not from heaven, but from the sea and earth, dreadful and terrible, by a civil sword and dignity, Rev. xiii. 2. I find the beast hath gotten the power and might of the kings of the earth, Rev. xvii. 13. The seven-headed beast and the Lamb differ in their weapons. But the Lamb’s weapons are spiritually mighty, 2 Cor. x. [4.] &c., his sword is two-edged, coming out of his mouth, Rev. i. [16.] His preparations for war are white horses and white harness, which are confessed by all to be of a spiritual nature, Rev. xix. Naboth’s case typical. When that whore Jezebel stabbed Naboth with her pen, in stirring up the people to stone him as a blasphemer of God and the king, what a glorious mask or veil of holiness she put on? Proclaim a fast, set a day apart for humiliation; and for confirmation, let all be ratified by the king’s authority, name, and seal, 1 Kings xxi. 8, 9. Was not this recorded for all God’s Naboths, standing for their spiritual interests in heavenly things—typed out by the typical earth and ground of Canaan’s land—that they through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope? Rom. xv. 4. Again, I demand, who shall here sit [to] judge, whether the magistrate command any other substance or ceremony but what is Christ’s? By their former conclusions, every soul must judge what the magistrate commandeth, and is not bound, even in indifferent things, to the magistrates’ law, further than his own soul, conscience, and judgment ascends to the reason of it. Here, the magistrate must make laws for that substance and ceremony which Christ appointed. But yet he must not do this with his eyes open, but blindfold and hoodwinked; for if he judge that to be the religion of Christ, and such to be the order therein, which their consciences judge otherwise, and assent not to, they profess they must submit only to Christ’s laws, and therefore they are not bound to obey him. Civil powers abused as a guard about the bed of spiritual whoredoms. Oh! what is this but to make use of the civil powers and governors of the world, as a guard about the spiritual bed of soul-whoredoms, in which the kings of the earth commit spiritual fornication with the great whore, Rev. xvii. 2,—as a guard, while the inhabitants of the earth are drinking themselves drunk with the wine of her fornication? But oh! what terrifyings, what allurings are in Jeremy’s curse and blessing! Jer. xvii. [5.] Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, that maketh flesh his arm,—too, too common in spiritual matters—and whose heart departeth from Jehovah: he shall be as a heath in the wilderness—even in the spiritual and mystical wilderness—and shall not see when comfort comes, but shall abide in drought in the wilderness, in a barren land, &c.