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Archive for the ‘Establishments’ Category

WPE 005 | Henderson’s sermon before parliament, “My kingdom is not of this world”

Posted in Alexander Henderson, Church of Scotland, Establishments, Mediator, Mediatorial Kingship, Preaching, The Civil Magistrate, The Kingdom of God, Two Kingdoms Theology, WPE Podcast on August 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

This is the third episode in a short series in the West Port Experiment podcast, featuring the Rev. D. Douglas Gebbie, minister of the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Chesley, Ontario. We’ve been looking at the great Scots Presbyterian “statesman,” Alexander Henderson. Our last episode dealt with his Government and Order of the Church of Scotland, while this discussion focuses on his masterful sermon before parliament on John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This is original “Reformed Two Kingdoms” theology!

If you’d like to study this sermon before or after listening, a PDF is available below, and I’ve recorded it in audio here. Naphtali Press also produced a very handsome volume (do they ever otherwise?) some years back that includes this sermon. Regrettably, it’s out of print, so you’d have to find it on the used book market.

About the WPE podcast. I have completed the first ten episodes before releasing any to make sure I wasn’t overcommitting or underperforming. But I’m hoping that this podcast fills a niche in a crowded digital area. While this site’s theme is about “parish missions, the care of souls, and all things reformed,” the first season is dedicated specifically to the Scottish Presbyterian tradition to which my denomination is devoted. God willing, I’ll continue to focus mainly in this area. But if it continues, I may branch off into other related areas, especially my great interest in Thomas Chalmers and the theory of practice of parish missions. And as for posting on other podcast platforms or YouTube, we’ll see.

For now, the episodes focus on a text or texts for discussion with various friends as conversation partners from within and beyond my presbytery. In this first season, we are dealing with John Willison, Samuel Rutherford, Hugh Binning, Alexander Henderson, David Dickson & the Stewarton Revival, James Guthrie, and Thomas Boston. I hope to release them about once per month.

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Gillespie’s Aarons’ Rod on the two swords 1

Posted in Christendom, Church of Scotland, Establishments, The Civil Magistrate, Two Kingdoms Theology on July 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The following taken from Book 2, Chapter 4 of Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, pp. 184-194.

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CHAP. IV. Of the agreements and differences between the nature of the Civil and of the Ecclesiastical Powers or Governments.

Having now observed what our opposites yield to us, or we to them, I shall for further unfolding of what I plead for, or against, add here the chief agreements and differences between the Civil and Ecclesiastical powers, so far as I apprehend them. They both agree in these things: 1. They are both from God; both the Magistrate, and the Minister is authorized from God, both are the Ministers of God, and shall give account of their administrations to God. 2. Both are tied to observe the Law and Commandments of God: and both have certain directions from the Word of God to guide them in their administration. 3. Both Civil Magistrates and Church Officers are Fathers, and ought to be honoured and obeyed according to the fifth Commandment: Utrumque scilicet dominium, saith Luther, Tom. 1. fol. 139. both Governments, the Civil and the Ecclesiastical, do pertain to that Commandment. 4. Both Magistracy and Ministry are appointed for the glory of God as Supreme, and for the good of men as the subordinate end. 5. They are both of them mutually aiding and auxiliary, each to other. Magistracy strengthens the Ministry, and the Ministry strengthens Magistracy. 6. They agree in their general kind; they are both Powers and Governments. 7. Both of them require singular qualifications, eminent gifts and endowments, and of both it holds true, Quis ad haec idoneus? Both of them have degrees of censures and correction according to the degrees of offences. Neither the one nor the other may give out sentence against one who is not convict, or whose offence is not proved. Both of them have a certain kind of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori. For though the Ecclesiastical power be spiritual, and exercised about such things as belong to the inward man only; yet as Dr. Rivet upon the Decalogue, pag. 260, 261. saith truly, there is a two-fold power of external jurisdiction which is exercised in foro exteriori: one by Church-Censures, Excommunication, lesser and greater, which is not committed to the Magistrate, but to Church-Officers: Another, which is Civil and coercive, and that is the Magistrates. But Mr. Coleman told us, he was persuaded it will trouble the whole World to bound Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdiction, the one from the other; Maledicis pag. 7. Well: I have given ten agreements. I will now give ten differences.

The difference between them is great; they differ in their causes, effects, objects, adjuncts, correlations, executions, and ultimate terminations.

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Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod on the two swords 2

Posted in Christendom, Church of Scotland, Establishments, The Civil Magistrate, Two Kingdoms Theology on July 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The following selections are taken from George Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod Blossoming (1646).

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7. That there is a distinction between Magistracy and Ministery, even Jure Divino. That the civill Magistrate hath not power to abolish or continuate the Ministery in abstracto at his pleasure; nor yet to make or unmake Ministers in concreto, that is, to ordain or depose Ministers, as he thinks fit.

    8. As the Offices are distinct (g) so is the power; Magistrates may do what Ministers may not doe: and Ministers may doe what Magistrates may not do.

    9. It is Juris Communis, a principle of common equity and naturall reason, that the directive Judgement in any matter doth chiefly belong to such as (by their profession and vocation) are devoted and set apart to the study and knowledge of such matters, and (in that respect) supposed to be ablest and fittest to give Judgement thereof. A consultation of Physicians is called for, when the Magistrate desires to know the nature, symptomes, or cure of some dangerous disease. A consultation of Lawyers, in Legall questions. A Councell of War in military expeditions. If the Magistrate be in a ship at Sea, he takes not on him the directive part of Navigation, which belongs to the master, with the mates and pilot. Neither doth the master of the ship (if it come to a Sea-fight) take on him the directive part in the fighting, which belongs to the Captain. And so in all other cases, Artifici in sua arte credendum. Wherefore though the Judgement of Christian prudence and discretion belongs to every Christian, and to the Magistrate in his Station; and though the Magistrate may be, and sometime is learned in the Scriptures, and well acquainted with the principles of true Divinity, yet ut plurimum, and ordinarily, especially in a rightly Reformed and well constituted Church, Ministers are to be supposed to be fittest and ablest to give a directive Judgement in things and causes Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall: with whom also other ruling Church-Officers do assist and joyne, who are more experimentally and practically (they ought also, and diverse times are more Theoretically) acquainted with the right way and rules of Church-government and censures; then the civill Magistrate (when he is no ruling Elder in the Church, which is but accidentall) can be rationally or ordinarily supposed to be.

    10. There is some power of Governement, in the Church given to the Ministery by Christ: else why are they said to be set over us in the Lord, and called Rulers and Governours, as we shall see afterward?

[171-172]

Finally, The Presbyteriall Government hath no such liberty nor arbitrarinesse, as Civill or Military Government hath: there being in all civill or temporall affairs a great deal of latitude left to those who manage the same, so that they command nor act nothing against the Word of God. But Presbyteriall Government is tyed up to the rules of Scripture, in all such particulars as are properly spirituall and proper to the Church; Though in other particular, occasional circumstances of times, places, accommodations, and the like, the same light of nature and reason guideth both Church and State; yet in things properly Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall, there is not near so much latitude left to the Presbytery, as there is in civill affairs to the Magistrate.

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Rutherford’s Due Right on the temporal & spiritual swords

Posted in Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Establishments, Samuel Rutherford, Two Kingdoms Theology on July 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Samuel Rutherford on the two jurisdictions, the “two swords” of a Christian realm in his Due Right of Presbyteries (1644):

Christ hath provided an Ecclesiasticall power to remove scandals betwixt church and church; for the Magistrates power is civill, and put forth by the Sword, and by carnall weapons. Christs aime in this, Mat. 18.19. is to remove scandals, and gaine soules. v. 15. If he heare thee, thou hast gained thy Brother. The Sword of the Magistrate is not ordained to gaine soules to Repentance. That Lord who careth for the part of a visible church, doth he not far rather care, in a spirituall way, for the whole (310-311)?

The following is a lengthier passage addressing the particular issue of how a Christian magistrate may or may not use his power to “compell persons to a Church profession.”

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Quest. II. Whether the Magistrate hath power to compell persons to a Church profession?

    Anent Magistrates sundry things are questioned to make presbyteriall government odious. And first our brethren complaine that our Churches are constituted by the authoritie of the Magistrate, (a) Robinson saith, it was a presumptuous enterprise, that people were haled against their will into covenant with God; to sweare obedience to the protestant Faith, being a profane multitude, living before in grosse idolatry, and that by the authority of the supreme magistrate; for the commandement of the magistrate (say they) can make no members of the visible Church, or of Christs body, because it is a voluntary act of obedience to Christ, that men adjoyne themselves to the visible Church. Ergo, none can be compelled thereunto by the authority of the Magistrate; faith may be compelled; it cannot bee compelled. For the clearing of this question, these considerations are to be weighed.

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Jus Divinum on the respective powers of the “two swords” in a Christian realm

Posted in Christendom, Church of Scotland, Constantine, Establishments, The Civil Magistrate, The Sacred Ministry, Two Kingdoms Theology on July 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The following is chapter 9 of Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici: Or, the Divine Right of Church-Government (1646) by several anonymous Presbyterian ministers in London at the time of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. Here is classic Reformed “Two Kingdom” theology, where the distinct, co-ordinate, and collaborative powers of church and state in a Christian land are set forth.

Listen to this and other recorded chapters here. Or scroll down to view a facsimile in a PDF.

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6. Of the proper receptacle and distinct subject of all this power and authority of Church government, which Christ hath peculiarly entrusted with the execution thereof, according to the Scriptures. And, 1. Negatively, That the political Magistrate is not the proper subject of this power.

    THUS we have taken a brief survey of church-government, both in the rule, root, kind, branches, and end thereof, all which are comprised in the former description, and being less controverted, have been more briefly handled: Now, the last thing in the description which comes under our consideration, is the proper receptacle of all this power from Christ, or the peculiar subject intrusted by Christ with this power and the execution thereof, viz. only Christ’s own officers. For church-government is a spiritual power or authority—derived from Jesus Christ our Mediator, only to his own officers, and by them exercised in dispensing of the word, &c. Now about this subject of the power will be the great knot of the controversy, forasmuch as there are many different claims thereof made, and urged with vehement importunity; (to omit, the Romish claim for the Pope: and the Prelatical claim, for the bishop;) the politic Erastian pretends that the only proper subject of all church-government, is the political or civil magistrate: the gross Brownists, or rigid Separatists, that it is the body of the people, or community of the faithful in an equal, even level: they that are more refined (who stile themselves for distinction’s sake Independents) that it is the single congregation, or the company of the faithful with their presbytery, or church-officers: the Presbyterians hold, that the proper subject wherein Christ hath seated, and intrusted all church-power, and the exercise thereof, is only his own church-officers; (as is in the description expressed.) Here therefore the way will be deeper, and the travelling slower; the opposition is much, and therefore the disquisition of this matter will unavoidably be the more.

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    Nicea today

    Posted in Confessional Subscription, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, Constantine, Establishments, Patristics on January 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

    Since 2025 was the 1700th anniversary of the momentous Council of Nicea, a lot of material online has been produced. This short series by the White Horse Inn was exceptionally good. I would highly commend every intelligent Christian wanting to deepen his knowledge and appreciation of this tremendous formula of faith that has stood the test of time and has left its print upon Protestant confessions and catechisms, not to mention the preaching and piety of the reformed catholic Church.

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    Davenport’s, “A Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation Whose Design is Religion”

    Posted in Constantine, Establishments, New England Puritanism, Two Kingdoms Theology on December 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

    Where all, or the most considerable part of free Planters profess their desire and purpose of enjoying, and securing to themselves and their Posterity, the pure and peaceable enjoyment of the Ordinances of Christ in Church-fellowship with his People and have liberty to cast themselves into that Mold or Form of a Common-wealth, which shall appear to be best for them. Tending to prove the Expediency and Necessity in that case of entrusting free Burgesses which are members of Churches gathered amongst them according to Christ, with the power of Choosing from among themselves Magistrates, and men to whom the Managing of all Public Civil Affairs of Importance is to be committed. And to vindicate the same from an Imputation of an Under-Power upon the Churches of Christ, which hath been cast upon it through a Mistake of the true state of the Question.

    Reverend Sir,

    The Sparrow being now gone, and one days respite from public Labors on the Lords-day falling to me in course, I have sought out your Writing, and have reviewed it, and find (as I formerly expressed to your self) that the Question is mis-stated by you; and that the Arguments which you produce to prove that which is not denied, are (in reference to this Question) spent in vain, as arrows are when they fall wide of the Marks they should bit, though they strike in a White which the Archer is not called to shoot at.

    The terms wherein you state the Question, are these:

    Whether the Right and Power of Choosing Civil Magistrates belongs unto the Church of Christ?

    To omit all critical Inquiries, in your thus stating the Question, I utterly dislike two things.

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    Read the rest here or view a facsimile of the original below. I have also recorded it in audio here. Also view all our audio resources at WPE Audio. This discourse is especially meaningful to me personally, since my ancestor, William Ives came over the Atlantic with John Davenport and eventually signed his name to the original town covenant of the New Haven Colony in Connecticut.

    Davenport-John, A Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation Whose Design is ReligionDownload

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    Vermigli on the godly prince

    Posted in Establishments, Political Theory & Theology, Protestantism & Romanism, The Civil Magistrate, The Godly Prince, Two Kingdoms Theology on December 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

    While doing some research in a related area, I ran into this first article by Torrance Kirby in the great Italian Reformer, Peter Martyr Vermigli. I know rather little of him, though he has been recognized as a major figure alongside Calving, Bullinger, etc. I wasn’t aware of how involved he was with the Church of England. As of the moment, I haven’t read the following two I post here, but they look similarly interesting. Here’s the source for these online.

    Kirby-Torrance, Vermigli on the Godly PrinceDownload
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    God or games? Wikipedia on “Sunday sporting events”

    Posted in Establishments, Psalmody in Culture, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Sacred & Secular, Secularization on October 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

    Alas, how far have we fallen from a right honoring of the Lord’s day in a land that was once “a city on a hill!” And how short is our collective memory of far better and holier days. But a simple search will bear witness. Our center of pleasure has shifted from the sacred to the secular, from God to games. The following is the Wikipedia entry for “Sunday sporting events.” Telling.

    “Sunday sporting events were not usually played until the early 20th century. In North America, they were prohibited due to blue laws at first, but then cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati later decided to legalize them. Other cities such as New York City and Philadelphia had intense political and court battles to legalize the games. Nowadays, professional sports leagues schedule games on Sundays in the United States, though this practice continues to be opposed by some Christian denominations upholding first-day Sabbatarian doctrine.”

    Read the rest here.

    [Image courtesy of Google Gemini.]

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    Church establishments inherently corrupt?

    Posted in Establishments, Protestantism & Romanism, Thomas Chalmers on August 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

    “An establishment may . . . be the occasional, but not the efficient cause of mischief. The machine may be faultless; but exposed, as it must be, while the species lasts, to the intromission of hands, which to a certain degree will taint and vitiate all that they come in contact with. The remedy is not to demolish the machine, and transfer the hands which wrought it to other managements and other modes of operation—There will still be corruption notwithstanding.” And even a reformed establishment can be re-corrupted: “The human nature which you thus transfer, will carry its own virus along with it” (Thomas Chalmers, Works 11:454).

    Or, in other words, bad men can make a bad use of good things.

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