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Discussion of George Gillespie's Wholesome Severity Reconciled with Christian Liberty

Subject: pt 3: Josiah an Erastian? last
From: Chris Coldwell 
Date: Sat, 07 Jun 1997 17:22:31 -0500

Date: Sat, 7 Jun 1997 10:27:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Albert Hembd 
Subject: JOSIAH, ERASTIANISM, AND NATIONAL COVENANTING, Part III
To: naphtali@naphtali.com

JOSIAH, ERASTIANISM, AND NATIONAL COVENANTING (continued)

 There is nothing Erastian about the above statement. (Westminster
Confession of Faith, Chapter 23, Article III, in the original version: see
the last post.) The authority and action that the magistrate may take is
tightly proscribed by the statement "FOR THE BETTER EFFECTING THEREOF HE
HATH POWER TO CALL SYNODS..."  THIS is the action that he is to take.  The
magistrate is not to usurp the power of the Synods.  He is not to issue
declarative statements of doctrine or dogma en fiat.  He is not to preach
regularly the Word.  (There may be extraordinary instances where, like King
David or Governor Winthrop of Boston, he may deliver a state of the union
address that may in many respects resemble a sermon.  This, however, does
not make him a regular minister or teaching elder in the Church.)  No: the
magistrate is not to supplant the ministry in holy things.  He is rather to
exhort the ministers to THEIR duties; he is rather to help fund their
endeavors for the purification of the Church.  He is to call Synods, and he
is to fund the endeavors of the Synod, however long they must needs take.
The funding of Oxford prior to the Long Parliament produced, with God's
blessing, the most educated ministry the Church has ever seen.  But
especially the Long Parliament's financial support of the Westminster
Assembly, made it the longest and most thorough Synod in the history of the
Church.  The length of this Synod, and the gravity of the exhortations
delivered the ministers, together with the vital godliness and learning of
the ministers, with the blessing of the sovereign Jehovah, made the
Westminster Standards the most thorough statement of the true doctrine, in
a creedal statement, known to the Church. 

 So then: the civil magistrate is to lend his forces to the support of the
education of the ministry, and to the endeavors of Synods in his realm, so
that "unity and peace be preserved in the Church," West. Conf. Chapt. 23,
Art. III.  And he is only to repress error and heresy as the Church
recommends. 

 Just as there can be no greater blessing upon a land than a Church
grounded on the truth, and united for the Cause of Christ and His truth; so
also a divided Church, full of heresies and schisms, is a scandal and an
offense to a land, and a hindrance to the Cause of Christ in that land.
John 17:20-21, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also that
shall believe on Me through their Word; that they may be one; as Thou,
Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they may be one in us: THAT THE
WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU HAST SENT ME." 

 There is no greater witness of the truth of the Christian religion than a
united Church that walks in the ways of the LORD.  Conversely, there is no
greater scandal to the Cause of Christ, no greater discredit to the truth,
than a divided Church full of heresy, scandal, and schism.  Accordingly, if
the truth is to have the blessing of the Lord in a land, to bring the
blessing of Abraham upon that nation, there must be a united Church.  "That
they may be one, as Thou, Father art in Me, and I in Thee...that THE WORLD
MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU HAST SENT ME."

 If the natural enmity of the carnal mind against the Law of God is to be
blunted, transformed, and reformed; the Gospel must have free course in a
land.  But a divided Church is perhaps the greatest obstacle to the free
course of the Gospel that there is, even more than inimical magistrates,
for a divided Church full of sects discredits the very message that it
would send: namely, that of reconciliation with God through Christ, and
reconciliation with one's fellow man in Christ.  Accordingly, if the civil
magistrate would desire the help of Gospel grace, to subdue the natural
enmity of man against the law of God, which Law that magistrate is to
uphold; he must seek the unity and peace of the Church which is to be the
very promulgator of that Gospel.  It is, therefore, a great and very
necessary duty for the magistrate to endeavor what he can for the unity and
welfare of Zion within the borders of his realm. 

 "For the better effecting thereof, he hath power to call Synods."  The
civil magistrate has not power nor authority in himself to effect the
reformation of the Church, but he has power to employ many means that, with
God's blessing, can PROMOTE the reformation of the Church. He must, like
Josiah, exhort the NT Levites to their duty: that they faithfully preach
the Word, that they faithfully administer the ordinances, that they cleanse
the sanctuary of false doctrine, worship, and practice.  And he has power
to call synods, and it behooves him to maintain those synods as long as
necessary, until it pleases the Lord above to work a true and substantial
reformation of His Cause in the realm. 

 Again, the power of reformation lies not with the king.  But the king can
be a nursing father.  He can and must do all that he can to help, to
forward the Cause of Christ.  And that for the good of the nation.  For
only Gospel mercies can subdue the populace to the civil reign of God's Law
in the commonwealth. 

 Lastly, we come to the matter of national covenanting.  If a nation is as
a nation to commit itself to the keeping of the Law of God, and to
supporting the Cause of Christ, it must do so by force of Law.  It is true
that the people may de facto support the Cause of Christ without a formal
covenant.  However, without the force of Law, there is no binding
obligation upon the part of the people to continue as a people to uphold
the Law of God and the Cause of Christ, and that fact puts the generations
to come in that nation in great jeopardy; for if they choose to forsake the
LORD, they will do so at their great peril.  Hence, it is altogether wise
for the fathers to put not only themselves, but also their children into
covenant with God, by force of constitutional law. 

 "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish," Is. 60:12.
 Since the ascension of Christ on high, the kingdoms of this world are
become, objectively speaking, the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.
The nations are bound to render their homage and allegiance to the Cause of
Christ.  "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way."  It is
imperative for the welfare of the State that the nation as a nation bind
itself by Law to serve Christ.  If it do not so, it is only by the common
mercies of God that they do not perish immediately. 

 Hence, it is imperative for the magistracy, whether Parliaments,
Congresses, Presidents, ministers, or kings, to labor to covenant their
nations to the Cause of Christ, by force of constitutional law. 

 Now, there again is a difference as to how Israel was covenanted as a
nation to Jehovah God, and the way in which nations today may and must
voluntarily covenant themselves to the Cause of Christ.  That difference
turns principally upon this hinge: the binding nature of the Civil Law in
OT Israel.  Israel as a nation (Ex. 24) was bound to a national covenant,
by the Civil Law, given by God from heaven through Moses, with Jehovah God:
to His Law, and to His Messiah.  Hence, any covenant which the subsequent
kings, such as Hezekiah or Josiah, had the people stand to, was really a
reaffirmation of the covenant already made.  It was a recovenanting that
the people made to the covenant of their fathers, which covenant was still
legally binding. 

 Now, the nations of the world are not bound, as we discussed before, to
the body of the Civil Law.  However, magistrates everywhere are indeed
bound to uphold the Law of God, First Commandment duties as well as Second
Table.  And the First Commandment mandates confession of the One True God,
His Son, His Word, and His Cause.  Though a formal covenant is not etched
out for them in the NT Scriptures, yet nonetheless, they are bound by the
Establishment Principle of the Scriptures to "bow down before Christ, and
to serve Him," Ps. 72:11. 

 Accordingly, NECESSARY CIRCUMSTANCES dictate that these nations must frame
national covenants to Christ in their OWN words.  The Solemn League and
Covenant of Scotland and the three countries of the British Isles are just
such a covenant.  Other nations outside the British Isles are not obligated
to adopt that particular covenant; they are free to ratify covenants of
their own words.  But, they are nonetheless duty bound to bind themselves
as nations to serve Christ, and that obligation necessitates some form of
covenanting on their parts. 

 This concludes our discussion of the first two points of this paper:
first, that Josiah was not an Erastian, and secondly, that magistrates
today not only may, on clear warrant of the Word, but even MUST labor to
covenant their nations to the Cause of Christ. 

 Now we come to the third point.  Is there any power (dunamis), any ability
from God promised to magistrates, to enable them to this all-important
duty?  We have already begun to imply that the ability to this duty does
not originate with the magistrates themselves.  National covenanting is a
fruit of Gospel grace.  Gospel grace originates from the faithful preaching
of the Word, blessed with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.  Hence, the
reformation of a nation must originate in the Church, by the outpouring of
the Holy Ghost.  We will deal more thoroughly with this point in Part IV of
this paper, the Lord willing and we live. 

 Respectfully submitted, 

 Albert Hembd
Greentown, Indiana 
Sincerely,
Chris Coldwell