ars,
eyes, hands, feet, and tongue, to do the same; so the magistrate should
not himself either teach or make laws, but command that these things be
done by the doctors and teachers. Cartwright and Pareus upon Heb. xiii.
17, tell the Papists, that we acknowledge princes are holden to be
obedient unto pastors in things that belong unto God, if they rule
according to the word, which could not be so, if the making of laws about
things pertaining to God and his worship did not of right and due belong
unto pastors, but unto princes themselves. Our Second Book of Discipline,
chap. 12, ordaineth, "That ecclesiastical assemblies have their place,
with power to the kirk to appoint times and places convenient for the
same, and all men, as well magistrates as inferiors, to be subject to the
judgment of the same in ecclesiastical causes." Balduine holdeth,(976)
that a prince may not by himself enjoin any new ecclesiastical rite, but
must convocate a synod for the deliberation and definition of such things.
And what mean our writers when they say,(977) that kings have no spiritual
but only a civil power in the church? As actions are decerned by the
objects, so are powers by the actions: if, therefore, kings do commendably
by themselves make laws about things pertaining to God's worship, which is
a spiritual action, then have they also a spiritual power in the church;
but if they have no spiritual power, that is, no power of spiritual
jurisdiction, how can they actually exercise spiritual jurisdiction? That
the making of laws about things pertaining to God's worship is an action
of spiritual jurisdiction, it needeth no great demonstration; for, 1. When
a synod of the church maketh laws about such things, all men know that
this is an action of spiritual jurisdiction flowing from that power of
spiritual jurisdiction which is called _potestas_ {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH VARIA~}. And how then
can the prince's making of such laws be called an action of civil, not of
spiritual jurisdiction? I see not what can be answered, except it be said,
that the making of those laws by a synod is an action of spiritual
jurisdiction, because they are made and published with the commination of
spiritual and ecclesia