the positive law of Christ alone: that
belongeth to the universal dominion of God the Creator over all nations;
but this unto the special and economical kingdom of Christ the Mediator,
which he exerciseth in the church alone, and which is not of this world.

45. The _second_ difference is in the object, or matter about which: the
power politic or civil is occupied about the outward man, and civil or
earthly things,--about war, peace, conservation of justice, and good order
in the commonwealth; also about the outward business or external things of
the church, which are indeed necessary to the church, or profitable, as
touching the outward man, yet not properly and purely spiritual, for they
do not reach unto the soul, but only to the external state and condition
of the ministers and members of the church.

46. For the better understanding whereof it is to be observed, that so far
as the ministers and members of the church are citizens, subjects, or
members of the commonwealth, it is in the power of the magistrate to
judge, determine, and give sentence, concerning the disposing of their
bodies or goods; as also concerning the maintenance of the poor, the sick,
the banished, and of others in the church who are afflicted; to regulate
(so far as concerneth the civil order) marriages, burials, and other
circumstances which are common both to holy, and also to honest civil
societies; to afford places fit for holy assemblies, and other external
helps by which the sacred matters of the Lord may be more safely,
commodiously, and more easily in the church performed, to remove the
external impediments of divine worship or of ecclesiastical peace, and to
repress those who exalt themselves against the true church and her
ministers, and do raise up trouble against them.

47. The matter may further be thus illustrated, there is almost the like
respect and consideration of the magistrate as he is occupied about the
outward things of the church, and of the ecclesiastic ministry as it is
occupied about the inward or spiritual part of civil government, that is,
about those things which in the government of the commonwealth belong to
the conscience. It is one thing to govern the commonwealth, and to make
political and civil laws, another thing to interpret the word of God, and
out of it to show the magistrate his duty, to wit, how he ought to govern
the commonwealth, and in what manner he ought to use the sword. The former
is proper and pe