'That refractory and turbulent persons shall be restrained': conformity, the civil magistrate, and the Jacobean Church of Scotland
Lindsay here sets forth a well-established understanding of the civil magistrate's duty to uphold conformity, not for binding the conscience but as a means of securing the peace of the kirk:
Since the time that Kings and Princes became Christian, it hath alwayes beene the custome that Synodicall Decrees were authorized by their Lawes; not that the allowance or authoritie of Ciuill Lawes is made a rule to a Christians Conscience, but that the externall man might thereby bee tyed to the obedience of these things, which the Church hath found to be agreeable to the Word of God, that is the only rule of conscience: and it is to bee hoped, that God shall so dispose the hearts of the whole Estate, to the loue of his Truth, and the Peace, and quietnesse of his Church, that refractarie and turbulent persons, such as ye are, shall bee restrayned of your vnbridled licentiousnesse, and kept vnder the obedience of the Church, and the Orders by her lawfully established; which howsoeuer ye that loue to liue after your owne mindes, call an vnreasonable burthen, all true and peaceable Christians will esteeme a benefite to the Church, and bee thankfull vnto God for the same.
Despite the tender consciences of 21st century European and North American Christians, it is difficult not to see wisdom in this understanding of the duty of the civil magistrate in the context of the weaker states and confessional strife of 17th century Europe. By upholding outward adherence to conformity, the civil magistrate was minimising the potential of religious conflict and violence. In the decades after Lindsay had published these words, the bloody consequences of the refusal to peaceably conform was painfully evident in the Kingdoms of Scotland, Ireland, and England. Subverting and overthrowing the peace of the national churches in these Kingdoms, by refusing conformity in obedience to the magistrate, resulted in bitter sectarian conflict.
What is more, as Lindsay makes clear, there was a significant theological justification for the civil magistrate's duty to uphold conformity: a refusal to peaceably accept the due order of the national church brought disharmony, conflict, and contention to the church, contrary to numerous apostolic exhortations. This is why Cranmer had powerfully expounded the duty of conformity:
And although the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony, in itself considered, is but a small thing; yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God, Let all things be done among you, saith Saint Paul, in a seemly and due order: The appointment of the which order pertaineth not to private men; therefore no man ought to take in hand, nor presume to appoint or alter any publick or common Order in Christ's Church, except he be lawfully called and authorized thereunto.
This was affirmed in the Church of England's Article XXXIV:
Whosoever through his private judgement, willingly and purposely, doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, (that others may fear to do the like,) as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren.
The Irish Articles of 1615 also declared both the authority of national churches in determining ceremonies (as in the Articles of Perth) and the role of the civil magistrate in upholding the duty of conformity:
Every particular Church hath authority to institute, to change, and clean to put away ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical rites as they be superfluous or be abused; and to constitute other, making more to seemliness, to order, or edification ... The King’s Majesty under God hath the Sovereign and chief power within his Realms and Dominions over all manner of persons of what estate, either Ecclesiastical or Civil, soever they be ... that he should contain all estates and degrees committed to his charge by God, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil, within their duty.
Nor can this understanding be deemed as contrary to the Scots Confession of 1560:
Moreover, to Kings, Princes, Rulers, and Magistrates, we affirm that chiefly and most principally the conservation and purgation of the Religion appertains; so that not only they are appointed for civil policy, but also for maintenance of the true Religion ... And therefore we confess and avow, that such as resist the supreme power (doing that thing which appertains to his charge), do resist God’s ordinance, and therefore cannot be guiltless.
Likewise, this duty of the civil magistrate was also found in the Second Helvetic Confession:
The chief duty of the magistrate is to secured and preserve peace and public tranquillity. Doubtless he will never do this more successfully than when he is truly God-fearing and religious; that is to say, when, according to the example of the most holy kings and princes of the people of the Lord, he promotes the preaching of the truth and sincere faith, roots out lies and all superstition, together with all impiety and idolatry, and defends the Church of God. We certainly teach that the care of religion belongs especially to the holy magistrate.
Once again, therefore, we see Lindsay standing firmly within the mainstream not only of the Reformed Churches of the Three Kingdoms, but also of the Continental Reformed tradition. This duty of the magistrate was not a binding of the conscience on matters adiaphora but, rather, a means of maintaining and protecting the church's peace and quietness against "refractarie and turbulent persons". It is not without some irony that the standard adopted adopted by the Church of Scotland in 1646, under the influence of the Convenanting tradition, also declared this to the duty of the civil magistrate. In the words of the Westminster Confession:
he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire; that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed; all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed; and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed.
Next week's post will begin consideration of Lindsay's defence of the specific provisions of the Articles of Perth.
(The picture is of a late 17th century drawing of Brechin, Lindsay's See.)
Comments
Post a Comment