Excerpt from Francis Turretin’s dedication to the “most magnificent, noble, and honored men of the consul and all the Senate of the celebrated Republic of Geneva“, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol. 1. Our Geneva, not shadowy and emblematically but truly, is that city sustained by the hand of God alone; not by human means or… Read More The Importance of Godly Rulers | Francis Turretin
“They who, upon pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin, or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty; which is, that, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life (Luke… Read More Religious Liberty & the Establishment of Religion
Samuel Rutherford, Lex Rex, The Law and the Prince (1644), Question XXXI. Whether or no self-defence against any unjust violence offered to the life, be warranted by God’s Law, and the law of nature and nations. Self-preservation in all creatures in which is nature, is in the creatures suitable to their nature. The bull defendeth… Read More A Biblical and Reasonable Defense of Self-Defense
Samuel Willard A Complete Body of Divinity An Excerpt from a Sermon on the 5th Commandment We have taken a brief account of the chief and most comprehensive duties, relative between superiors and inferiors, both natural and political. There are some other differences in providence between men, which though they do not give a civil… Read More Social Inequality and the 5th Commandment
James Durham A Commentarie Upon the Book of Revelation pp. 511-516. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which… Read More National Churches Under the New Testament
John Calvin, Commentary on Zechariah 13:3 “And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall… Read More The Death Penalty for Heresy | John Calvin
Twenty-Sixth Question Whether the judicial law was abrogated under the New Testament. We make distinctions Ends of the individual law. I. The forensic or judicial law concerned the civil government of the people of God under the Old Testament and contained a body of precepts concerning the form of that political rule. There were various… Read More Has the Judicial Law been Abrogated? | Francis Turretin
In part three we considered the necessity of a Holy Spirit wrought Reformation and unity in the the Church prior to, and in harmony with, the establishment of a national Church. In this final post of our series we will envisage the dangers of ecumenical latitudinarianism to the unity of the Church and answer objections regarding persecution and… Read More Establishment Principle, Part 4: Liberty of Conscience
In part 2 we examined the Scriptural evidence for the Establishment Principle and particularly the prophecies that God will cause it to occur in history. In this post we will see the importance of a Holy Spirit wrought Reformation and unity in the polity, discipline, worship, ordinances, doctrine, and practice of the Church prior to, and in harmony with,… Read More Establishment Principle, Part 3: Reformation and Unity of the Church
In our previous post we saw that civil governments are to provide an “hospitable abode to the church” which is a singular institutional entity organized by Jesus Christ with a specific political and catholic structure. This is strictly a positive duty in Christ’s Kingdom of Grace regarding nations joining the Church corporately, not how magistrates set public policy in relation to… Read More Establishment Principle, Part 2: Prophecies
Purely Presbyterian 