Page:Brief historical relation of the life of Mr. John Livingston Minister of the Gospel.pdf/67

( 67 ) whether or not we have love to you, and that we could do any thing in our power for your welfare; but we dare not exceed our inſtructions. Take this further ſimilitude; A certain man gets his maſter’s flock to keep, and gets inſtructions to abide by his flock, and not to acknowledge any judicature beyond his border. Sometime after this, he is ſummoned to a foreign court, with certification, if he refuſed to go, they would drive away the flock and ſpoil his maſter’s goods. Now, ſays the man, I am in a ſtrait, If I go, I will betray my maſter’s liberty; and if I go not, the flock will be abuſed: but I remember my maſter gave me aſſurance, that his flock ſhall lack nothing, and ſhall get no hurt. Notwithſtanding, they will have the ſervant to go, and would perſuade him that it were better to acknowledge an unlawful court, and unlawful judges, than expoſe his maſter’s flock to haſard: Nay, faith he, my maſter hath given me aſſurance, that let his flock be driven and poinded as they will, and let them ſtand, as they uſe to ſay, till their chafts fall, yet they ſhall never die for want, and therefore I will let them ſtand to their hazard, rather than betray my truft. But ſay ſome, Why may ye not in ſuch a particular acknowledge the magiſtrate? For anſwer to this, take another ſimilitude; An ambaſſador is ſent from one state to another upon theſe terms: You ſhall in your negooiations carry yourſelf uprightly, according to the inſtructions given you. The prince to whom he is ſent comes to propone to the ambaſſador, that he ſhall acknowledge an eccleſiaſtic officer unknown to him; The ambaſſador anſwers, With your liberty, I muſt firſt adviſe with my Inſtructions, and having done ſo, he ſays, I cannot find ſuch an office in all my inſtructions; I find in the 20th of Matthew, that the princes of the Gentiles exerciſe dominion, but it muſt not be ſo among church-officers, and therefore I dare not go beyond that. To kings and princes we ſhall give their due, and we acknowledge they have a power to rule about eccleſiaſtical things, but then it is not ſpiritual power; for ſuch a power is only competent to. Would any prince take it well if another ſhould ſay to him, Ye have ſuch and ſuch officers in your Rh