# William Hetherington on WCF Church-State Relation



## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 19, 2006)

William Hetherington, Introduction to Robert Shaw's _An Exposition Of The Westminster Confession Of Faith_:



> Another decided and great merit of the Confession consists in the clear and well-defined statement which it makes of the principles on which alone can securely rest the great idea of the co-ordination, yet mutual support, of the civil and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions. It is but too usual for people to misunderstand those parts of the Confession which treat of these jurisdictions – some accusing those passages of containing Erastian concessions, and others charging them with being either lawless or intolerant. The truth is, they favour no extreme. Proceeding upon the sacred rule, to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s, they willingly ascribe to the civil magistrate a supreme power in the State—all that belongs to his province, not merely with regard to his due authority over the persons and property of men, but also with regard to what pertains to his own official mode of rendering homage to the King of kings. It is in this latter department of magisterial duty that what is called the power of the civil magistrate, circa sacra – about religious matters, consists. But there his province ends, and he has no power in sacris—in religious matters. This is most carefully guarded in the leading proposition of chapter xxx.:— "The Lord Jesus Christ, as King and Head of His Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hands of Church Officers, distinct from the Civil Magistrate. The leading Erastians of that period, learned and subtle as they were, felt in impossible to evade the force of that proposition, and could but refuse to give to it the sanction of the Legislature. They could not, however, prevail upon the Assembly either to modify or suppress it; and there it remains, and must remain, as the unanswered and unanswerable refutation of the Erastian heresy by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. In modern times it has been too much the custom of the opponents of Erastianism tacitly to grant the Erastian argument—or, at least, the principle on which it rests by admitting, or even asserting, that if a Church be established, it must cease to have a separate and independent jurisdiction, and must obey the laws of the State, even in spiritual matters; but then declaring, that as this is evidently wrong, there ought to be no Established Church. There is more peril to both civil and religious liberty in this mode of evading Erastianism than is commonly perceived; for, if it were generally admitted that an Established Church ought to be subject, even in spiritual matters, to the civil jurisdiction of the State, then would civil rulers have a direct and admitted interest in establishing a Church, not for the sake of promoting Christianity, nor with the view of rendering homage to the Prince of the kings of the earth, but for the purpose of employing the Church as a powerful engine of State policy. That they would avail themselves of such an admission is certain; and this would necessarily tend to produce a perilous contest between the defenders of religious liberty and the supporters of arbitrary power; and if the issue should be the triumph of Erastianism, that issue would inevitably involve the loss of both civil and religious liberty in the blending of the two jurisdictions—which is the very essence of absolute despotism. Of this the framers of our Confession were well aware; and, therefore, they strove to procure the well-adjusted and mutual counterpoise and co-operation of the two jurisdictions, as the best safeguards of both civil and religious liberty, and as founded on the express authority of the Word of God. It never yet has been proved, from either Scripture or reason, that they were wrong, although their views have been much misunderstood and grievously misrepresented. But, instead of prosecuting this topic, we refer to the comment on those chapters which treat of the civil magistrate, of synods, and of Church censures, as giving a very accurate and intelligible explanation of the doctrine of the Confession on these subjects.
> 
> The Confession of Faith has often been accused of advocating intolerant and persecuting principles. It is, however, in truth, equally free from latitudinarian laxity on the one hand, and intolerance on the other. An intelligent and candid perusal of chapter xx., "On Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience," ought of itself to refute all such calumnies. The mind of man never produced a truer or nobler proposition than the following:—"God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship." The man who can comprehend, entertain, and act upon that principle, can never arrogate an overbearing and intolerant authority over the conscience of his fellowman, much less wield against him the weapons of remorseless persecution. But there is a very prevalent, and yet very false, method of thinking, or pretending to think, respecting toleration and liberty of conscience. Many seem to be of opinion that toleration consists in making no distinction between truth and error, but regarding them with equal favour. This opinion, if carefully analysed, would be found to be essentially of an infidel character. Many seem to think that by liberty of conscience is meant, that every man should be at liberty to act in everything according to his own inclination, without regard to the feelings, convictions, and rights of other men. This would, indeed, be to convert liberty into lawlessness, and to make conscience of licentiousness. But the Confession proceeds upon the principle that truth can be distinguished from error, right from wrong; that though conscience cannot be compelled, it may be enlightened; and that when sinful, corrupt, and prone to licentiousness, men may be lawfully restrained from the commission of such excesses as are offensive to public feeling, and injurious to the moral welfare of the community. If this be intolerance, it is a kind of intolerance of which none will complain but those who wish to be free from all restraint of law human or divine. Nothing, in our opinion, but a wilful determination to misrepresent the sentiments expressed in the Confession of Faith, or a culpable degree of wilful ignorance respecting the true meaning of these sentiments, could induce any man to accuse it of favouring intolerant and persecuting principles. Certainly the conduct of those who framed it gave no countenance to such an accusation, though that calumny has been often and most pertinaciously asserted. On this point, also, it would be well if people would take the trouble to ascertain what precise meaning the framers of the Confession gave to the words which they employed; for it is not doing justice to them and their work to adopt some modern acceptation of a term used by them in a different sense, and then to charge them with holding the sentiment conveyed by the modern use or misuse of that term. Yet this is the method almost invariably employed by the assailants of the Confession of Faith.


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## crhoades (Dec 19, 2006)

Thanks for that. The copy of Shaw that I have has Sinclair Ferguson doing the front matter. Don't get me wrong...He's incredible but I didn't know Hetherington did one as well.

Reading the chapter out of Jus Divinum by the London Ministers on Church State relations as well as Aaron's Rod Blossoming by Gillespie has definitely helped in ascertaing the original intent of the WCF. This helps as well.

Another helpful resource is David Lachman's lectures on Scottish Presbyterianism from PRTS. He deals with Church/State relations and tours through Gillespie and sounds much like the Hetherington passage above.

I'm mulling over some questions regarding establishmentarianism that as soon as I cound be clear with them, look for a PM.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Dec 19, 2006)




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## NaphtaliPress (Dec 19, 2006)

Chris,
Where is a listing of the PRTS courses on tape? I didn't know David was on tape.


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## crhoades (Dec 19, 2006)

NaphtaliPress said:


> Chris,
> Where is a listing of the PRTS courses on tape? I didn't know David was on tape.


 
.mp3 no less!

http://www.puritanboard.com/showthread.php?t=17196

Look under the Church History section for course 329. I'm a little over half way through it. He spends one whole lecture working through Gillespie's English Popish Ceremonies and Hat Tips you for the work you did by name. Awww... 

He covers general Scottish History in the intro lecture. He spends time on the First and Second Book of Order. He spends a lecture on the Scots Confession or National Covenant. He spends 1.5 lectures on church/State matters. 1.5 on worship. That's where I'm up to at this point. It's been enjoyable. The lectures weren't that expensive.


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## NaphtaliPress (Dec 19, 2006)

crhoades said:


> The lectures weren't that expensive.





crhoades said:


> He spends one whole lecture working through Gillespie's English Popish Ceremonies and Hat Tips you for the work you did by name. Awww...


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## ADKing (Dec 19, 2006)

crhoades said:


> .mp3 no less!
> 
> http://www.puritanboard.com/showthread.php?t=17196
> 
> ...



Sounds excellent!


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## NaphtaliPress (Dec 19, 2006)

Chris,
I don't see these listed or at least am not smart enough to find how to order these at RHB. Or do you get these from PRTS directly. I did not see anything on their website, again, that was not obvious to me either to find these.


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## crhoades (Dec 19, 2006)

NaphtaliPress said:


> Chris,
> I don't see these listed or at least am not smart enough to find how to order these at RHB. Or do you get these from PRTS directly. I did not see anything on their website, again, that was not obvious to me either to find these.


 
Download their catalogue in .pdf from their home page and they are listed on the back couple of pages. Best way to do it is call the bookstore. Pronk on the Dutch 2nd Reformation is great. Beeke on Puritan Theology is awesome. So many good courses available.


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