XXXIX

absolve, condemn, or do any other act, is the same thing with a civil commonwealth, consisting of Christian men; and is called a “civil state,” for that the subjects of it are “men”; and a “Church,” for that the subjects thereof are “Christians.” “Temporal” and “spiritual” government are but two words brought into the world to make men see double, and mistake their “lawful sovereign.” It is true that the bodies of the faithful, after the resurrection, shall be not only spiritual but eternal; but in this life they are gross and corruptible. There is therefore no other government in this life, neither of state, nor religion, but temporal; nor teaching of any doctrine, lawful to any subject, which the governor both of the state and of the religion forbiddeth to be taught. And that governor must be one; or else there must needs follow faction and civil war in the commonwealth between the “Church” and “State”; between “spiritualists” and “temporalists”; between the “sword of justice,” and the “shield of faith”: and, which is more, in every Christian man’s own breast, between the “Christian” and the “man.” The doctors of the Church are called pastors; so also are civil sovereigns. But if pastors be not subordinate one to another, so as that there may be one chief pastor, men will be taught contrary doctrines, whereof both may be, and one must be false. Who that one chief pastor is, according to the law of Nature, hath been already shown; namely, that it is the civil sovereign; and to whom the Scripture hath assigned that office we shall see in the chapters following.