CHAP. LII.
What is to be understood byevil, Rom. xiii. 4.
Peace.Against this I know many object, out of the fourth verse of this chapter, that the magistrate is to avenge, or punish,evil: from whence is gathered that heresy, false Christs, false churches, false ministries, false seals, being evil, ought to be punished civilly, &c.
Truth.I answer, that the word κακὸν is generally opposed to civil goodness, or virtue, in a commonwealth, and not to spiritual good, or religion, in the church.
Secondly, I have proved from the scope of the place, that here is not intended evil against the spiritual, or Christian estate handled in the twelfth chapter, but evil against the civil state in this thirteenth, properly falling under the cognizance of the civil minister of God, themagistrate, and punishable by that civil sword of his as an incivility, disorder, or breach of that civil order, peace, and civility, unto which all the inhabitants of a city, town, or kingdom, oblige themselves.
Peace.I have heard, that the elders of the New England churches—who yet out of this thirteenth of Romans maintain persecution—grant[159]that the magistrate is to preserve the peace and welfare of the state, and therefore that he ought not to punish such sins as hurt not his peace. In particular, they say, the magistrate may not punish secret sins in the soul: nor such sins as are yet handling in the church, in a private way: nor such sins which are private in families—and therefore, they say, the magistrate transgresseth to prosecute complaints of children against their parents, servants against masters, wives against husbands, (and yet this proper to the civil state). Nor such sins as are between the members and churches themselves.
And they confess, that if the magistrate punish, and the church punish, there will be a greater rent in their peace.
Truth.From thence, sweet Peace, may we well observe,
First, the magistrate is not to punish all evil, according to this their confession.
The distinction of private and public evil will not here avail; because such as urge that termevil, viz., that the magistrate is to punish evil, urge it strictly,eo nomine; because heresy, blasphemy, false church, false ministry, is evil, as well as disorder in a civil state.
Some give to the magistrate what is not his, and take from him that which is proper to him.
Secondly, I observe, how they take away from the magistrate that which is proper to his cognizance, as the complaints of servants, children, wives, against theirparents, masters, husbands, &c. Families as families, being as stones which make up the common building, and are properly the object of the magistrates’ care, in respect of civil government, civil order, and obedience.[160]