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.
The following are two passages from Samuel Rutherford’s The Due Right of Presbyteries (1644), in which he engages with the congregationalist “New England Way” of church government. These particular sections are revealing especially for how they illustrate the classic presbyterian model of church planting. The Church of Scotland operated programmatically as a “gathering church” versus the self-styled independent “gathered church” model. Or, if we may put it anachronistically in the language of Thomas Chalmers two generations later, we ought to operate on the “aggressive,” not the “attractive” scheme.
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7. Argum. A multitude of unwarrantable wayes partly goeth before, partly conveyeth this Church-covenant, As. 1. It is a dreame that all are converted by the meanes of private Christians, without the Ministery of sent Pastors, by hearing of whom Faith commeth; all are made materialls and converts in private without Pastors; judge if this be Christs order and way. 2. How it is possible a Church shall be gathered amongst Infidells? this way Infidells cannot convert Infidells, and Pastors as Pastors cannot now be sent, by our Brethrens Doctrine, for Pastors are not Pastors but in relation to a particular congregation, therefore Pastors as Pastors cannot be sent to Indians. 3. They must be assured in conscience, at least satisfied in every one anothers salvation, and sound conversion: were the Apostles satisfied anent the conversion of Ananias, Saphira, Simon Magus, Alexander, Hymeneus, Philetus, Demas and others? 4. By what warrant of the word are private Christians, not in office, made the ordinary and onely converters of Soules to Christ? conversion commeth then ordinarily and solely by unsent Preachers, and private persons Ministery. 5. What warrant have the sister Churches, of the word, to give the right hand of fellowship to a new erected Church? for, to give the hand of fellowship is an authoritative and pastoriall act, as Gal. 2.9. When James, Cephas, and John perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave unto me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that is, saith Pareus, (a) they received us to the colledge of the Apostles; so Bullinger (b) and (c) Beza, now this is to receive them in amongst the number of Churches, as Pareus, and members of the catholick Church, but Churches being all independent, and of a like authority, the Sister Churches having no power over this new erected Church, what authority hath Sister Churches, to acknowledge them as Sister Churches? For 1. They cannot be upon two or three houres sight of them, hearing none of them speak, satisfied in their consciences of their Regeneration. 2. By no authority can they receive them as members of the catholick Church, for this receiving is a Church-act and they have no Church-power over them. 3. What a meeting is this of diverse Churches for the receiving of a new Sister Church? It is a Church (I believe) meeting together, and yet it is not a congregation, and it is an ordinary visible Church, for at the admitting of all converts to the Church-order, this meeting must be: surely here our brethren acknowledge that there is a Church, in the New Testament made up of many congregations, which hath power to receive in whole Churches, and members of Churches unto a Church-fellowship; this is a visible provinciall, or nationall Church, which they other wayes deny.
[100-101]
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Quest. 1.If Pastors may performe Ministeriall Acts in any other Congregation than their owne.
This is answered unto, by a Manuscript, If you take a Ministeriall act improperly, when a Minister doth exercise his gift of praying and preaching, being required so to doe, so hee may exercise some Ministeriall acts; but this he doth not by vertue of any calling, but only by his gifts and occasionally. But if you meane by a Ministeriall act, an act of authority and power in dispensing of Gods Ordinances, as a Minister doth performe to the Church whereunto he is called to be a Minister, then we deny that he can so performe any Ministeriall act in any other Church, than his owne.
Hence though he may preach to another congregation, yet may he not administer the Sacraments to an other then to his owne.
Answ. First, We hold that by a calling or ordination he is made a Pastor, by election he is restricted to be Ordinarily the Pastor of his flocke.
Secondly, A Pastor is a Pastor of the Catholike Church, but he is not a Catholike Pastor of the Catholike Church, as were the Apostles.
Thirdly, The Reformed Churches may send Pastors to the Indians, for that which Acosta saith of Jesuites, wee may with better reason say it of our selves: That Pastors are as Souldiers, and some Souldiers are to keepe order, and remaine in a certaine place, others run up and downe in all places; So some are affixed to a Congregation, to feed them, others may be sent to those people, who have not heard of the Gospel. Which sending is ordinary and lawfull, in respect of Pastors sending, and the Pastors who are sent, because in Pastors, even after the Apostles be dead, there remaineth a generall Pastorall care for all the Churches of Christ. Thus sending is not ordinary, but extraordinary, in respect of those to whom the Pastors are sent, yet is it a Pastorall sending.
This opinion of our Brethren, is against the care of Christ, who hath left no Pastorall care in earth by his way, now since the Apostles dyed, to spread the Gospel to those Nations who have not heard of the name of Christ; but a Pastorall care for the Churches, is not proper to Apostles onely, but onely such a Pastorall care by speciall direction from Christ immediately to Preach to all. 2. Backed with the gift of tongues and of miracles; and this essentially differenceth the Apostle from the ordinary Pastor; but the former Pastorall care to Preach the Gospel to all Nations, and to convert, is common both to the Apostle and Pastor.
2. Our Brethren distinguish betwixt office and the calling, and they say that the office extendeth no further then the call, and by office he is onely a Pastor of this determinate flocke. But if he be a Pastor essentially in relation to none, but to his owne Congregation from which he hath all his calling, as is supposed, by that same reason a Christian, is a Baptized Christian to none but in relation to that particular Church in whose society he is admitted, and he doth partake of Christs body and blood in the Lords Supper in relation to no visible professors on earth, but onely to the Parish Church whereof he is a Member, 1 Cor. 10.17. for they expone that onely of a Parishionall Communion within one single independant Congregation. And he must be a Heathen, or as a Pagan in all Congregations on earth, but in his owne, yea and he is a visible professor of the Covenant of grace, which is one in substance, (as they say) with the Church-Covenant, and hath claime to Christ and all his Ordinances in no Congregation save in his owne. I prove the consequence, for by Baptisme the Baptized person is incorporated in Christ’s visible Church. 1 Cor. 12.13. If this be true when one removeth from one Congregation to another, hee must be re-baptized and incorporated a visible member of a body visible with them. And I see not how one can be in-churched to another Congregation, and made one body therewith, while he eate of one bread with them, as they expone, 1 Cor. 10.17. if he be not also a member of all visible Churches on earth.
3. If a Pastor can exercise no Pastorall acts toward any Congregation, save toward his owne, then a Pastor as a Pastor cannot pray for the whole visible Churches of God: but the latter is absurd: Ergo, so is the former. I prove the major, The praying for the whole visible Churches is a Pastorall Act, due to a Pastor as a Pastor. Because every visible Church is obliged, as it is a Church, to pray for all the visible Churches on earth: for as a Christian is obliged to pray for all Churches visible, so farre more is a Church: now a visible Church doth not pray but by the Pastor, who is the mouth of the People to God; and that this is a Pastorall duty due to a Pastor, I thinke is said Isa. 62.6. I have set watchmen on thy Towers, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: Yee that make mention of the Lord, keepe no silence till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth.
Also Pastors as Pastors are to pray for the King, though the King be no member of that Congregation, whereof they be Pastors. 1 Tim. 2.1, 2. every Pastor as a Pastor is to Preach against the sinnes of the Land, else how can the People mourne for these sinnes? Ergo, the Pastor doth exercise Pastorall acts upon all the visible Churches on earth, upon the King, and upon the whole Land, to which he is not a Pastor by speciall election.
4. If a Pastor be obliged to Preach in season and out of season, and that as a Pastor, and because he is a Pastor. 2 Tim. 4.2. Ergo he is to Preach as a Pastor in any Congregation where he shall be desired.
They answer, He may Preach the word in another Congregation, not by vertue of a calling or office, but by vertue of his gifts.
I answer, First, if he Preach by vertue of a gift onely, he Preacheth in that case, not as sent of God, and so intrudeth himselfe, and runneth unsent, and a meere gift to be a King or a Magistrate, maketh not a Magistrate, as (a) Master Robinson, of Grantham. Ergo, one cannot warrantably exercise a Pastorall act by vertue of a meere gift. 2. He may in another Congregation preach with Pastorall authority, and use the keyes by binding and loosing sinnes, according as hearers doe repent and harden their neckes against the Gospel. Ergo, he may preach as a Pastor to another Congregation. 3. There shall be no Communion betwixt Sister Churches in Pastorall acts as Pastorall, which is absurd; the Communion shall onely be of Pastorall acts as Christian acts, but in no sort betwixt them as Pastorall acts.
5. The Scriptures for this opinion are weake, Ergo the opinion it selfe is weake, I prove the antecedent. Act. 20.28. Feed the flocke, over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers, &c. there is no ground to feede even by Preaching, or by vertue of a gift, the flockes over which the holy Ghost hath not set you: Obey them that are over you in the Lord,Heb. 13.17. &c. there is no warrant to submit to other Pastors that are not over you in the Lord, though they command by vertue of a gift, not by vertue of an office or calling: these be loose consequences.
6. All reciprocation of mutuall duties amongst sister Churches, whereby they exhort, rebuke, comfort one another, must be unlawfull, for these be Church acts, and this Author saith, The office extendeth no further then the calling, but there is no calling of Church-membership betwixt sister-Churches, and therefore all these duties are not acts of the Communion of Churches, as they are such Churches or incorporations in a Church-state, but onely duties of Churches as they are Saints, but communion of Churches as Churches in the act of Church-dispensing of the Word and Seales reciprocally one to another, is not in the Word of God, as this opinion will inferre, which is a weighty absurd.
7. The Authors of this opinion hold; That if the Congregation, for no fault, reject the Pastor, whom they once called and elected to be their Pastor, though in so doing they sinne, and reject God in rejecting him, yet they take nomen & esse, the name and nature of a Pastor from him, yet (say they) hee still remaineth a Minister of Christ, till he accept a call from another Congregation.
Hence 1. such a one is a Pastor, and yet the people have taken name and nature of a Pastor from him, as they gave him name and nature: Ergo, he is either a Pastor without a calling, which is absurd, or he remaineth a person in relation to another flocke, who never choosed him, nor gave him any calling. 2. To adde by the way, if he be capable of a calling to another Church, Ergo, for the time he is no Minister, else they must say, he may be a Minister capable of two callings, to two sundry Ministeries, which yet maketh him a Pastor not in relation to one single congregation onely.
It is true, they object that the Apostles, Matth. 18. were commanded to preach to all Nations, but Pastors are not so now, but are commanded to feed the flocke over which God hath appointed them, Act. 20.28. but it is as true the Apostles were commanded to preach to all Nations, in opposition to the charge that the Prophets of old were to speake to the people of Israel onely, and the Apostles Matth. 10. forbidden to preach to the Samaritans and Gentiles; and it is as true that Gods Spirit limited the Apostles to Preach to Macedonia, not to Bithynia; now because this particular direction for places is wanting in the Church, it is certaine that a man is yet a Pastor in office in relation to as many as Gods hand of providence shall send him unto, though he be chosen by a people to feed ordinarily one determinate flocke, and though he be not an extraordinary and immediately inspired planter of Churches, or the first planter, as were the Apostles, yet is he a Pastor in relation to all. And if this be not said, 1. It were simply unlawfull for Pastors now to plant Churches, and spread the Gospell to those nations, who have not heard it, because all Pastors now are ordinary, and none are immediately inspired Apostles: but it is certaine what the Apostles did, by an extraordinary gift, as such immediately called pastors, it is unlawfull for ordinary Pastors to attempt to doe, as to attempt to speake with tongues, and to plant Churches by speaking with tongues and confirming it with miracles, is unlawfull. Papists, as Bellarmine, Suarez, Acosta, ascribe this to the Pope and his Apostles. Our Divines answer that the Apostles that way have no successors; But what the Apostles did by an ordinary pastorall gift, as to preach the word, administrate the Sacraments, to erect and plant Churches by ordinary gifts, where the Pastors can speake to the Churches by an ordinary gift in their owne language, they are obliged both within and without the Congregation, to preach as Pastors, because where God giveth gifts pastorall to pastors, he commandeth them to exercise these gifts, else they digge their Lords talent in the earth: but God giveth to Pastors pastorall gifts to preach to others then their owne Congregation, and to administrate the seales to them also, and to plant Churches. Ergo, it is presumed that the Church doth give authoritie and an externall ministeriall calling to the exercise of these gifts.
2. It is an unwarrantable point of Divinitie that the Apostles and the Pastors succeeding to them doe differ essentially in this, that Apostles might preach as Pastors to more Congregations then one, and might plant Churches, but pastors succeeding to them may not as Pastors preach to more Congregations then their owne, and may not plant Churches, for then planting of Churches now were utterly unlawfull, because it is certaine there be no Apostles on earth, and it is not lawfull for a Pastor, yea nor is it lawfull for any other gifted person to doe that which is essentiall to an Apostle and agreeth to an Apostle as to an Apostle. It is then unlawfull for our brethren, seeing they be not Apostles, to plant Churches in India.
Nor is that comparison to be regarded much; A Magistrate or an Alderman of a Citie may not lawfully exercise his office of Magistracie in another Citie whereof he is not a Maior, and therefore a Pastor cannot preach, ex officio, as a Pastor in another Congregation, whereof he is not a Pastor, nor can he exercise discipline in another Congregation then his owne, seeing another Congregation hath not by voluntary agreement, oath or paction submitted themselves to his ministry, nor chosen him for their Pastor.
For I answer, the comparison halteth and doth not prove the point, for by one and the same act the citie hath chosen such a man both for to be a Magistrate, and to be their Magistrate, and have given him thereby authority over themselves onely, so he cannot exercise the office of a Magistrate over another Citie who hath not chosen him to be their Maior or ruler. But the flocke doth not both call such a man, in one and the same act to be a pastor, and to be their pastor, but hee is made by the laying on of the hands of the Elders, a Pastor, and a Pastor in relation to all to whom God in his providence shall send him to speake, the Congregation by election doth give him no authority pastorall, but onely appropriate his pastorall authoritie to themselves in particular; and when they refuse him againe and cast him off, they take not pastorall authoritie from him, for they cannot take away that which they cannot give; he remaineth a Pastor though they cast him off, as a Colledge of Physicians do promote a man to be a Doctor of Physicke, to cure diseases, a towne calleth him to be their Physician, he may yet exercise acts of his calling, and ex officio, as a Doctor, upon other cities and inhabitants of the countrey; and when the city who choosed him for their Physician doth cast him off, they take not from him the office of doctorship which the Colledge of Physicians conferred upon him, for they cannot take from him that which they cannot give to him. Yea if any of another flocke shall come and heare the word, the Pastor offereth all in one pastorall sacrifice to God in prayer, though there be many of another Congregation in the Church hearing; yea strangers beleevers communicate with him at the same Table, yet is he not their Pastor. If a Pastor of a Congregation die or be sicke, shall the children of beleevers, yea shall converted Pagans being desirous to be baptized be defrauded of the comfort of Baptisme, and of the Lords Supper; for no fault in them, but onely because their Pastor is dead, may not the Congregation by their desires and requests appropriate the office of Pastors of another Congregation in some particular acts to their necessitie? yea is not their receiving of his ministry in that act (when their Pastor is dead) a calling warranting him to officiate, hic & nunc? even as the desires and choise of his owne flocke electing him to be their constant Pastor, gave him a calling to be their Pastor constantly, and in all the ordinary acts of his calling? yea and it is sure as the holy Ghost set him over his owne flocke in ordinary, because they choosed him to be their Pastor, so that same holy Ghost set him over this other Congregation, in this act, to preach and administrate the sacraments to them, in this exigence of the death of their Pastor; for God who ruleth officers and disposeth of them in his house, disposeth of particular Acts of his owne officers, and he is sent as a pastor from God to speake to the stranger hic & nunc, and to worke his heart to the love of Christ, and that as a Pastor no lesse then to his owne flocke, except we destroy communion of gifts, and of Pastorall gifts. Paul by the holy Ghost was made the Apostle of the Gentiles; Peter of the Jewes, Gal. 2.8. yet Peter as an Apostle preached to, and baptized the uncircumcised Gentiles,Act. 10.11. and Paul exercised his office of an Apostle upon the Jewes also, both by preaching and baptizing, as the history of the Acts, chap. 16. chap. 17. and other places may cleare; Rom. 1. so that the contrary doctrine is a new conceite, not of God, and against the pastorall care of bringing in soules to Christ.
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…Indians and Turks may heare the Word as well as the excommunicated person, and therefore hearing of the word is no note of Church communion.
I answer, the Turke and Indian must heare the word, but at hee by, and not professedly; but the excommunicated person by the vertue of his Covenant made in baptisme, and that relation he hath to the Church under whose cure he is, for the saving of his spirit, and to that Gospel which he professeth, is obliged to the Church-communion of publique hearing the Word; yea, and according to his oath given, to be subject to the ministery of such a man whom he chose for his Pastor, to give obedience to him in the Lord, however in that one particular for which he is cast out, he hath failed against all the foresaid obligations. 2. The Church, as a visible Church, exerciseth no medicinall acts upon Turkes or Heathen persons, and doth not repute them as Heathen, but doth repute them to be Heathen. Nor hath the Pastor any pastorall charge of Turkes and Heathens, except they would desire to be baptized and professe the faith. But the Church as the Church exerciseth medicinall acts of shunning Christian fellowship with the excommunicated, and that with a continuated intention even when he is excommunicated, that his spirit may be saved in the day of God, and the Pastor hath a pastorall, and so a ministeriall care and obligation of pastorall teaching, admonishing and perswading him to returne to God.
[274-275]
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2. You make the spirit of love in a pastorall care over other Churches to be dead, because none have any pastorall care over any other Churches, but the particular Congregation over which they are Pastors, and pastorall love to unconverted ones, as pastorall, you utterly deny.
The last way of communion (saith the Author) is by propagation or multiplication, which is, as the Apostles had immediate calling from God to travell through the world, and to plant Churches, so have particular Churches given to them immediately from Christ, the fulnesse of measure of grace, which the enlargement and establishment of Christs kingdome doth require, that is, when the Bee-hive a parishionall congregation is surcharged, they have power to send forth their members, to enter, by Covenant, in Church-state amongst themselves, and may commend to them such able gifted Ministers, as they thinke may bee Ministers in that young Church.
Answ. 1. This way of inlarging Christs kingdome is defective. 1. It sheweth the way of inlarging the number of invisible Churches, and multitudes of converts into new incorporations, but doth shew no way how to plant soules who were non-converts, and branches of the wild Olive in Christ Jesus, and to make new visible Churches; but it is certaine that the Apostles as Apostles, and as Pastors, by vertue of their office converted obstinate sinners to the faith of Christ, and planted them in a visible Church, consisting of professors of the faith, partly converted, partly not converted; but the pastors by your doctrine have no power as Pastors, or by any Pastorall authoritie, to plant the Gospel where it hath never beene, that pastorall spirit is dead with the Apostles; and in this, contrary to all reason and sense, and contrary to the Scriptures, you make private Christians the successors of the Apostles to plant Churches, and to convert soules, and to make them fit materials for the visible Church of regenerate persons; for Pastors as Pastors, and visible Churches as visible Churches doe nothing at all to the multiplying of Churches, seeing Pastors and visible Churches as they are such, by your doctrine, are but nurses to give suck to those who are already converted, but not fathers to convert them; for private Christians, or pastors as Christians gifted to prophesie, not as Pastors, doe multiply Churches, and convert men to Christ, as you teach, now wee all know that nurses as nurses doe not propagate, or by generation multiply people in the Common-wealth, that fathers and mothers onely can doe; your Churches have no ministeriall breasts, but to give suck to babes who are already borne: but wee see by your doctrine, no ministeriall power of Pastors or Churches to send forth members to enter in a Church covenant, or to enter in a new Church relation of a daughter, or a sister visible Church; if they send a number to bee a new Church, your Pastors or visible Church did not multiply them, it is presumed they were converts, before they were members of the visible Church, which now sendeth them out, and if they bee multiplied in the bosome of your visible Church and converted, they were not truely members of that visible Church before their conversion, and also that they were not converted by any publike ministery, but by private Christians gifted to prophesie, who are the onely successors of the Apostles to plant visible Churches: but what pastorall authoritie have you to send them forth to bee a new visible Church? none at all? they have as beleevers power to remove from you, and because of multiplication, to make themselves a new Church, and this ministeriall power of making themselves a new Church they have not from you, but from their fathers who converted them, so that you make a visible Church within a visible Church, but not a Church begotten or borne of a visible Church, as a child of the mother; and wee desire a word of God, either precept, promise, or practise of such a Church multiplication, mans word is not enough.
2. Wee hold that the sending of the Apostles to all the world was not in it selfe, that which essentially distinguisheth the Apostle from the now ordinary Pastor, who is fixed to a single Congregation, but the gift of tongues to preach to all the world upon the Lords intention to send the Gospel to all nations, that as many as were chosen to life, might beleeve, was that which essentially differenceth the Apostle from the ordinary pastor, together with a speciall revelation of God, to goe to such and such people, to Macedonia, and not yet to Bythinia. And now seeing these two are taken away, the ordinary Pastors which now are, have as Pastors a sufficient calling to preach the Gospel to all nations, to whom by Gods providence they shall come, and can understand their language, whether of their owne Congregation or not. Neither is a Pastor tied as a Pastor by Gods Word, to one onely Congregation, for then it should bee unlawfull for a Pastor as a Pastor to plant a new Church; but shall it bee lawfull for private Christians to plant new Churches, who are not the Apostles successors, and yet it shall bee unlawfull for Pastors, who are the undoubted successors of the Apostles, to plant new Churches? I would thinke that admirable doctrine; for so you give to private Christians that which you make essentiall to the Apostles, and you deny it to the undoubted successors of the Apostles, to wit, to Pastors. But we hold a lawfull Pastor is a Pastor in relation to all the world, with this distinction, hee is by Christs appointment and the Churches a Pastor to all congregations, to plant and water, and preach, but by speciall designation of Gods providence, and the Churches appointment designed and set apart for such a determinate flocke, just as the Apostles in generall were made Pastors to all the world, Matth. 28.19. Go teach all nations, but by speciall revelation and Apostolick appointment, Peter was appointed the Apostle of the Jewes, Paul of the Gentiles, Gal. 2.9. yet Paul was a Pastor in relation to the Jewes, and Peter also in relation to the Gentiles: so by speciall revelation, Act. 16. they are forbidden to preach the word in Bythinia, and commanded to preach it elsewhere; and for this cause, pious antiquity, as Morton (a) observeth, called some learned fathers Pastors of the World, (b) Athanasius is saluted Pontifex maximus, as Ruffinus saith, and Origen magister ecclesiarum, master of the Churches, so (c) Hieronymus, and Cyprian totius orbis praeses,Cyprian the Bishop of all the world, yea and Pope, so (d) Nazianzen.Hilarius is called by (e) Augustine insignis ecclesiae doctor, a renowned teacher of the Church, and (f) Nazianzenus calleth Basilius the light of the world, and (g) Damascenus the light of the whole world, and (h) Theodoret saith Chrysostome is called totius orbis terrarum doctor, the Doctor and teacher of the whole world: all which titles saith evidently that antiquitie beleeved never a Pastor, or Bishop, not to bee a Pastor onely in relation to the one single Congregation, whereof hee is Pastor, but a Pastor in relation to the whole visible Church, though by designation of the Church his ministery bee appropriated to one particular Church. Thus it is cleare that our brethren deny all communion of Churches, while they confine a visible Church to one onely single and independent Congregation, subjected in its visible government to Christ Jesus immediately, and to no universall visible Church or Synod on earth.
This is the second episode of the West Port Experiment podcast. See the first here. 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.
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 will be 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.
In this episode, Matthew Vogan and I discuss Samuel Rutherford’s Trial and Triumph of Faith (1645). You can listen to a number of the chapters recorded here. A PDF edition is available below, and Banner of Truth still publishes the book.
If you would like to be kept updated about WPE podcast releases, subscribe to this site at the right, just under the banner. If any links are broken, please drop me a note at michael@reformedparish.com.
[Instrumental music in podcast courtesy of Ernst Stolz.]
A portion of Samuel Rutherford’s masterful Trial and Triumph of Faith, a series of sermons in which he treats the Lord’s dealings with the Syro-phoenician “dog” who yet “ate the crumbs falling from the childrens’ table.” Here we see him waxing eloquent on the high privileges of Israel “after the flesh,” and then plying the Gentile church not to be hard-hearted but to pray for the conversion of these “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Listen to the full sermon here; and check out the entireWPE Audio library here.
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“OF ISRAEL.” It was then a privileged mercy, that Christ was sent to the Jews. (1.) The Jew is the elder brother, and the native heir of Christ. Christ is of their blood and house. (Rom. 1:2,3, and 9:3.) They were Christ’s first bride. Alas! they killed their husband. There is a born Jew in heaven, in soul and body: it is sweet to have any relation to Christ. (2.) The catholic covenant of grace made with the great sister, the Church Universal, was first laid down in pawn in their hand; they put their hand first to the contract, in subscribing the marriage contract, (Jer. chapters 2 and 3). Israel was holy to the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase. Oh, sweet! the fallen race of mankind was Christ’s corn-field, and his wheat. The Jews were the first sheaf of the field, (Deut. 7:6). They got Christ’s young love, and, (to speak so,) the first handsel of free grace in a church-way. (3.) Christ, in the Jewish flesh, (yet not excluding Ruth, Rahab, and other Gentiles of the blood-royal,) acted the whole gospel. A born Jew redeemed the lost world, offered a sacrifice to God for sinners: a born Jew is heir of all things, is exalted a prince to guide and rule all, and shall judge men and angels. (4.) The Lord Christ, in the flesh, was first offered to them; they had the first gospel-love, (Matt. 10:5,6; Acts 13:46). (5.) The oracles of God were committed to them, (Romans 3:1; 9:4); the testator Christ’s written will, was in their keeping. (6.) God was their first crowned King. He gave Ethiopia, and Egypt, and Zeba, a ransom for them, and was their lawgiver. (7.) Every male child among the Jews did bear somewhat of Christ in his flesh, (Col. 2:11) when all the world was without Christ. (8.) Their land was Christ’s by a special typical right. God saith of it, “It is my land.” Christ was their sovereign landlord, and they the great King’s freeholders. (9.) The Lord never dwelt in a house made with hands, in a temple, as amongst them, having special respect to the true Temple, Jesus Christ, (John 2:19).
USE 1. Let us pray our elder sister home to Christ. They said, “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day that she shall be spoken for?” (Cant. 8:8.) Now, we have a greater sister, what shall we, the Gentiles, do for her? There is a day when “ten men shall take hold, out of all nations, of the skirt of a Jew, saying, We will go with you; we have heard that God is with you” (Zech. 8:23.) . . .
USE 3. The Jews had the morning market of Christ, and they would not pay the rent of the vineyard to the Lord thereof. We have the afternoon of Christ; and know we what a mercy it is, that “our Beloved feedeth amongst the lilies, till the day break, and the shadows fly away;” and that “the voice of the turtle is heard in our land”? God, for our abuse of the gospel, hath sent among us the bloody pursuivants, and officers of his wrath, men skilful to destroy; God is now in three kingdoms, arresting the carcases of men. We are owing much to God; he will now have husbands and sons from us, and legs and arms of wounded and slain men from us, for that rent we owe to the Lord of the vineyard,—for our contempt of the gospel.
“He has dressed the whole Supper Himself, covered the table, and there is no more for us to do, but sit down and eat. If we look to this dressed Supper, Christ dressed it all Himself, in the furnace of God’s wrath, and the bread that we here eat is His flesh, which He gave for the life of the world. The wine, which is mingled and drawn is His blood. And, O, sirs, was not our Lord a hot man in making ready this Supper? Not one dish is mis-cooked, all is set before us in the gospel, and Jesus craves no more for all His pains, but only that His friends come to the banquet and eat and be merry; and if ye will come, Christ will pay all the reckoning. When the Israelites were fed with manna, they behoved to go out of the camp, and gather it themselves; but we furnish nothing of this Supper. God be thanked, Christ bears all the expense. Alas! alas! that the unhappy world will not eat heartily, since Christ pays for all. The poor sons of Adam were all sick and at the point of death, and their stomachs were so spoiled with a sour apple that Adam did eat, that they were famished and not able to eat. In comes Jesus and makes a medicinal dinner of His own flesh and blood; lays down Himself and is slain to make physic of His crucified body for us, in order to affect our cure. It is just they die for hunger, and lose their stomach for evermore, who loathe this meat. In the sacrament all things are ready; whatever the soul wants, it shall find at the Table. All the hungry shall find Christ meat and drink.”
Joseph Receives His Brothers on their Second Visit to Egypt, a painting by Bacchiacca, ca. 1515.
The following are some passages from Scottish Presbyterian fathers on the Christological theme of our Lord’s mediatorial “stewardship.” Sublime:
“And if there be varieties of temperature of saints, some rough and stiff, some mild, some old men, and some babes, 1 John 2:13. And as there be some lambs, some fainting, weak and swooning tender things, that Christ feeds like kings’ sons, with wine of heaven: so there be others that are under the care of the steward Christ, who are heifers and young bullocks, like Ephraim not well broken yet, Jer.31:18, 19 and there be hoping and waiting saints, that must bear the yoke in their youth, Lam. 3:26, 27 and sundry kinds and sizes of children; every one must have their own portion and diet, 2 Tim.2:15; Mat. 24:45. One man’s meat is another’s poison, and yet they are both the sons of one Father.”
-Samuel Rutherford, Christ’s Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself
“You have cause to hold up your heart in remembrance and hope of that fair long summer day, for in this night of your life, wherein you are in the body absent from the Lord, Christ’s fair moon-light in his word and sacraments, in prayer, feeling, and holy conference, hath shined upon you to let you see the way to the city. I confess our diet here is but sparing; we get but tastings of our Lord’s comforts; but the cause of that is not because our steward Jesus is a niggard, and narrow-hearted, but because our stomachs are weak, and we are narrow-hearted. But the great feast is coming, and the chambers of them made fair and wide to take in the great Lord Jesus . Come in, then, Lord Jesus to hungry souls gaping for thee!”
12. Adam brake the whole frame of heaven and earth: and to the Second ADAM the whole broken and marred lump of the Creation is promised, that he may be the repairer of the waste places. Isa. 49:8. I will preserve thee, and give thee for a Covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. Ps. 72:16. Under the reign of the Messiah, There shall be an handfull of corn upon the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. Jer. 31:12. Therefore shall they come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord (Christ) for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd.
1. The Lord made all things at the beginning very good, Gen. 1:31. Heaven, Earth, Sun, Moon, Beasts, Birds, &c. being all made servants to man, were in a manner fellow-Covenanters in their kind with man in the Covenant of Works: As a King covenants with a great Family, his servants and dependers have the benefit of the Kings Covenant peace, all obeyed Adam without jarring: but when Adam sinned, war between the Lord, and between the Master and the servants is denounced, the earth is cursed for his sake, Genes. 3:17, 18. and Lions and wild Beasts rise against him like loose boarders. But in the Covenant of Grace, Hos. 2:18, 19, 20. the beasts of the field, the fowls of the heaven, the Sun which shall not smite by day, nor the Moon by night, Ps. 121:6. are by the Surety of the Covenant brought in a new league: yea the stones of the field, Job 5:23. are compartners of the peace, and Christ the King takes off the forefaultry [forfeit, failure] upon all, and looses the arrestment of vanity that by sin was laid upon the Creation, which was made sick like a woman travelling in birth, Rom. 8:20, 21, 22. Hence are they blessed in Christ to the Saints, Deut. 28:4, 5; Levit. 26:4, 5, 6. and the Angels come in under their Head Christ, Col. 2:10. and serve the new restored heirs, Heb. 1:13. for their Heads sake.
2. God hath appointed Christ the Heir of all things, and, Heb. 1:2. hath given a Charter to Christ and put in bread, garments, houses and all to the Believer in Christ the first Heir: his great evidence is, 1 Cor. 3:21. All things are yours. 3. He makes all things new, Rev. 21:5. This Christ mends the broken gold ring which was broken by the first unattentive and rash Heir Adam; So that now Heavens, Earth, Mountains, Isai. 49:13. Sea, trees, fields, Psal. 96:11, 12, 13. are commanded to sing a Gospel Psalm of joy, because Christ the new King and Restorer of all is come to the Throne: yea let the stoods [stands of trees] clap their hands, Psal. 98:9. and he purposes to purge with fire the great Pest-house infected with sin and under bondage of corruption, Rom. 8:21; 2 Pet. 3:10, 11. that he may set up the new world in Gospel-beauty, the new heavens and the new earth, 2 Pet. 3:13; Isai. 65:17; Isai. 66:22; Rev. 21:1. Oh what a life to have a cottage and a little yard of herbs in that new World, and how base to be but Citizens of this World!
“Christ is a drawing and an uniting Spirit; then all that are in Christ should be united. Certainly the divisions now in Britain cannot be of God. The wolf and the good Shepherd are contrary in this; the good Shepherd loves to have the flock gathered in one, and to save them, that they may find pasture, and the flock may be saved: the wolf scatters the flock; or if the wolf would have the flock gathered together, it is that they may be destroyed. Then it would be considered, if a bloody intention of war between two protestant kingdoms, for carnal ends, and upon forced and groundless jealousies, be from an uniting Spirit, and not rather from him, who was a murderer from the beginning.”
For a good, one-chapter introduction to the historic Scottish Presbyterian views of visible Church union or ‘catholicity,’ have a listen to “Church Unity & the Sin of Schism,” by John Macpherson, in his Doctrine of the Church in Scottish Theology.
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Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?
The following passage comes from Rutherford’s Trial and Triumph of Faith (1645), treating the story of Christ and the Syro-Phoenician woman. In it, he deals with a dimension of sin and repentance that often gets very short shrift in our individualistic age, and sadly even in the Church. Does this square with the contemporary Two Kingdoms approach?
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THE dispute between Christ and the woman goeth on: Christ bringeth a strong reason, (verse 26,) why he should not heal her daughter; because she, and all her nation, not being in covenant with God, as are the Jews, the church of God, are but dogs, and profane, and unworthy of Christ, which is the bread ordained for the children.
When Christ humbleth, he may put us in remembrance of our nation, and national sins: “Look to the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged,” (Isa. 51:1). “I alone called Abraham, he was an idolater,” (Hos. 9:10). I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; they should have been wild grapes rotting in the wilderness, had I not put them in my basket. “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination,” (Ezek. 16:2). How? Make them know the stock they came of, ‘And say, Thus saith the Lord unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite,’ (verse 3). When the Jew was to offer the first fruits to the Lord; “And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and went down to Egypt to sojourn there,” (Deut. 26:5). Thus, the forgetting what we are by nature, addeth to our guiltiness: “And in all thine abominations, and thy whoredoms, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood,” (Ezek. 16:22). So the Ephesians must be told how unfit they were by nature for Christ, being the very workhouse and shop of the devil, in which he wrought, (Eph. 2:1-3).
National sins have influence in their guilt and contagion on believers: (1.) When they mourn not for them: God’s displeasure should be our sorrow. (2.) When they stand not in the gap to turn away wrath, (Ezek. 22:30). There were godly men that departed from ill, (Isa. 59), but God’s quarrel was, that there was no intercessor, (verse 15). In fasting, believers, though pardoned, may have on them a burden of the sins of three nations, and be involved in that same wrath with them. National repentance is required of every one, no less than personal repentance. Who sorrows for the blood of malignants and rebels?—for their oaths, mocking, scoffing, massing? The sins of the land, idolatry, superstitious days, vain ceremonies, etc., have influence on a believer’s conscience in his approach to God.
“It is our fault, that we look upon God’s ways and works by halves and pieces; and so, we see often nothing but the black side, and the dark part of the moon. We mistake all, when we look upon men’s works by parts; a house in the building, lying in an hundred pieces; here timber, here a rafter, there a spar, there a stone; in another place, half a window, in another place, the side of a door: there is no beauty, no face of a house here. Have patience a little, and see them all by art compacted together in order, and you will see a fair building. When a painter draweth the half of a man; the one side of his head, one eye, the left arm, shoulder, and leg, and hath not drawn the other side, nor filled up with colours all the members, parts, limbs, in its full proportion, it is not like a man. So do we look on God’s works by halves or parts . . . yet do we not see, that in this dispensation, the other half of God’s work makes it a fair piece.”
-Samuel Rutherford, The Trial and Triumph of Faith (1645)
