t the
example of the best reformed churches leadeth his way?" For the covenant
tieth us to a reformation of the government of the church both according
to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches: that as
_regula regulans_; this as _regula regulata_.

The reverend brother replieth: 1. "The best reformed church that ever was
went this way; I mean the church of Israel."

_Ans._ 1. Is the church of Israel one of the reformed churches which the
covenant speaks of? 2. Was the church of Israel better reformed than the
apostolical churches? Why then calls he it the best reformed church that
ever was? 3. That in the Jewish church there was a church government
distinct from civil government, and church censures distinct from civil
punishments, is the opinion of many who have taken great pains in the
searching of the Jewish antiquities; and it may be he shall hear it ere
long further proved, both from Scripture and from the very Talmudical
writers.

2. "I desire (saith he) the Commissioner to give an instance in the New
Testament of such a distinction (civil and church government) where the
state was Christian."

_Ans._ I desire him to give an instance in the New Testament of these
three things, and then he will answer himself. 1. Where was the state
Christian? 2. Where had the ministry a doctrinal power in a Christian
state? 3. Where doth the New Testament hold out that a church government
distinct from civil government may be where the state is not Christian,
and yet may not be where the state is Christian? Shall the church's
liberties be diminished, or rather increased, where the state is
Christian?

In the third and fourth place, the brother tells us of the opinions of
Gualther, Bulhager, Erastus, Aretius. The question is of the examples of
churches, not of the opinions of men. But what of the men? As for that
pestilence that walketh in darkness through London and Westminster,
Liastus' book against Beza, let him make of it what he can, it shall have
an antidote by and by. In the meanwhile, he may take notice, that, in the
close of the sixth book, Erastus casts down that which he hath built, just
as Bellarmine did, in the close of his five books of justification. But as
for the other three named by the brother, they are ours, not his, in this
present controversy. Gualther(1340) expounds 1 Cor. v. all along of
excommunication, and of the necessity of church discipline; insomuch that
he expounds the ve