ower, although in respect of God
it be ministerial, yet in respect of the subjects it is lordly and
magisterial. Ecclesiastical power is indeed furnished with authority, yet
that authority is liker the fatherly than the kingly authority; yea also
it is purely ministerial, much less can it be lawful to ministers of the
church to bear dominion over the flock.

59. Emperors, kings, and other magistrates are indeed appointed fathers of
the country, but they are withal lords of their people and subjects: not
as if it were permitted to them to bear rule and command at their own will
and as they list (for they are the ministers of God for the good and
profit of the subjects), yet it belongs to their power truly and properly
to exercise dominion, to hold principality, to proceed imperiously. It is
indeed the duty of ministers and rulers of the church to oversee, to feed
as shepherds, to correct and rectify, to bear the keys, to be stewards in
the house of Christ, but in nowise to be lords over the house, or to
govern as lords, or lord-like to rule; yea, in brief, this is the
difference between the civil magistrate and the ecclesiastical ministry,
in respect of those who are committed to their trust, that the lot of the
former is to be served or ministered unto, the lot of the latter to
minister or serve.

60. Now we have one only Lord who governs our souls, neither is it
competent to man, but to God alone, to have power and authority over
consciences. But the Lord hath appointed his own stewards over his own
family, that according to his commandment they may give to every one their
allowance or portion, and to dispense his mysteries faithfully; and to
them he hath delivered the keys, or power of letting into his house, or
excluding out of his house those whom he himself will have let in or shut
out. Matt. xvi. 19; and xviii. 18; Luke xii. 42; 1 Cor. iv. 1; Tit. i. 7.

61. Next, the civil power is endued with authority of compelling; but it
belongs not to the ministry to compel the disobedient. If any compulsion
be in or about ecclesiastical matters, it is adventitious from without, to
wit, from the help and assistance of the magistrate, not from the nature
of ecclesiastical power, from which it is very heterogeneous; and,
therefore, if any suspended or excommunicate person should be found who
shall be so stiff-necked, and so impudent, that at once he cast off all
shame, and make no account at all of those censures, but scorn a