the government of his Church, Matth. xxviii. 18,
19, 20, Isa. ix. 6, John v. 22, Eph. i. 22. In this sense, if church
government, or any part of it, be found to be of divine right, then
consequently--1. It is above all mere human power and created authority
in the world whatsoever, and that supereminently. A divine
right is the highest and best tenure whereby the Church can hold of
Christ any doctrine, worship, or government; only God can stamp such a
divine right upon any of these things, whereby conscience shall be
obliged. All human inventions herein, whether devised of our own hearts,
or derived as traditions from others, are incompatible and inconsistent
herewith; vain in themselves, and to all that use them, and condemned of
God. See 1 Kings xii. 32, 33, Isa. xxix. 4, Matth. xv. 6, 7, 8, 9. 2. It
is beyond all just, human, or created power, to abolish or oppose the
same, or the due execution thereof in the Church of Christ; for what is
of divine right, is held of God, and not of man; and to oppose that,
were to fight against God. The supreme magistrates in such cases should
be nurse-fathers, Isa. xlix. 23, not step-fathers to the Church; their
power being cumulative and perfective, not privative and destructive
unto her; for she both had and exercised a power in church government,
long before there was any Christian magistrate in the world; and it
cannot be proved that ever Christ took away that power from his Church,
or translated it to the political magistrate, when he became Christian.
3. It is so obligatory upon all churches in the whole Christian world,
that they ought uniformly to submit themselves unto it; for a divine
right is equally obligatory on one church as well as on another. And it
is so obligatory on all persons, states, and degrees, that none ought to
be exempted from that church government which is of divine right, nor to
be _tolerated_ in another church government, which is but of human
invention; nor ought any Christian to seek after, or content himself
with any such exemption or _toleration_; for in so doing, the inventions
of men should be preferred before the ordinances of God; our own wisdom,
will, and authority, before the wisdom, will, and authority of Christ:
and we should in effect say, _We will not have this man to reign over
us_, Luke xix. 27. _Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their
cords away from us_, Psalm ii. 3.

CHAPTER III.

_Of the Nature of a_ DIVINE RIGHT _in