(1514-1572)
John Knox on the Magistrates Duty in the reformation of religion,
“But the facts of Hezekiah, and of Josiah, do more clearly prove the
power and duty of the civil magistrate in the reformation of religion.
Before the reign of Hezekiah, so corrupt was the religion that the doors
of the house of the Lord were shut up, the lamps were extinguished, no
orderly sacrifice was made. But in the first year of his reign, the
first month of the same, did the king open the doors of the temple,
bring in the priests and the Levites, and assembling them together, did
speak unto them as follows: “Hear me, O ye Levites, and be sanctified
now, and sanctify also the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and
carry forth from the sanctuary all filthiness” he means all monuments
and vessels of idolatry (1 Chron. 29). “For our fathers have
transgressed, and have committed wickedness in the eyes of the Eternal,
our God; they have left him, and have turned their faces from the
tabernacle of the Lord, and therefore is the wrath of the Lord come upon
Judah and Jerusalem. Behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, our
sons, daughters, and wives are led in captivity. But now have I purposed
in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that he may
turn the wrath of his fury from us. And therefore, my sons” ‘he sweetly
exhorts’ “be not faint: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand in his
presence, and to serve him.”
Such as be not more than blind, clearly may perceive that the king
does acknowledge, that it appertained to his charge to reform the
religion, to appoint the Levites to their charges, and to admonish them
of their duty and office, which thing he more evidently declares,
writing his letters to all Israel, to Ephraim, and Manasseh, and sent
the same by the hands of messengers, having this tenor: “You sons of
Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he
shall return to the residue that resteth from the hands of Assyria. Be
not as your fathers, and as your brethren were, who have transgressed
against the Lord God of their fathers, who hath made them desolate, as
you see. Hold not your heart therefore, but give your hand unto the
Lord; return unto his sanctuary; serve him and he shall show mercy unto
you, to your sons, and daughters, that be in bondage: for he is pitiful
and easy to be entreated” (2 Chron. 30:6-9).
Thus far did Hezekiah by letters and messengers provoke the people
declined from God to repentance, not only in Judah where he reigned
lawful king, but also in Israel, subject to another king. And albeit
that by some wicked men his messengers were mocked, yet as they lacked
not their just punishment (for within six years after Samaria was
destroyed and Israel led captive by Shalmanesar), so did not the zealous
King Hezekiah desist to prosecute his duty in restoring the religion to
God’s perfect ordinance, removing all abominations.
The same is to be read of Josiah, who did not only restore the
religion, but did further destroy all monuments of idolatry, which of
long time had remained (2 Chron. 34). For it is written of him, that
after the book of the law was found, and that he had asked counsel at
the prophetess Huldah, he sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and
Jerusalem; and standing in the temple of the Lord, he made a covenant
that all the people, from the great to the small, should walk after the
Lord, should observe his law, statutes, and testimonies, with all their
heart and all their soul, and that they should ratify and confirm
whatsoever was written in the book of God. He further commanded Hilkiah
the high priest, and the priests of the inferior order, that they should
carry forth of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made to
Baal, which he burnt, and did carry their powder to Bethel. He did
further destroy all monuments of idolatry, yea, even those that had
remained from the days of Solomon. He did burn them, stamp them to
powder; whereof one part he scattered in the brook Kidron, and the other
upon the sepulchres and graves of the idolaters, whose bones he did
burn upon the altars, where before they made sacrifice, not only in
Judah, but also in Bethel, where Jeroboam had erected his idolatry (2
Kings 23). Yea, he further proceeded, and did kill the priests of the
high places, who were idolaters and had deceived the people; he did kill
them, I say, and did burn their bones upon their own altars, and so
returned to Jerusalem. This reformation made Josiah, and for the same
obtained this testimony of the Holy Ghost, that neither before him,
neither after him, was there any such king, who returned to God with his
whole soul, and with all his strength, according to the law of Moses. ”
-John Knox, The Appellation, 1558
Thomas Cranmer (1489 - 1556)
"Your majesty is God's vicegerent, and Christ's vicar within your own dominions, and to see, with your predecessor Josiah, God truly worshipped, and idolatry destroyed; the tyranny of the bishops of Rome banished from your subjects, and images removed. These acts are signs of a second Josiah, who reformed the church of God in his days. You are to reward virtue, to revenge sin, to justify the innocent, to relieve the poor, to procure peace, to repress violence, and to execute justice throughout your realms. For precedents on those kings who performed not these things, the old law shows how the Lord revenged his quarrel; and on those kings who fulfilled these things, he poured forth his blessings in abundance. For example, it is written of Josiah, in the book of the Kings, thus: '[And] Like unto him there was no king [before him], that turned to the Lord with all his heart, [and with all his soul, and with all his might,] according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.' This was to that prince a perpetual fame of dignity, to remain to the end of days." Unknown author, Writings of Edward the Sixth, William Hugh, Queen Catherine Parr, Anne Askew, Lady Jane Grey, Hamilton, and Balnaves: Volume 3: of British reformers (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1836), 5, 6.
Henry Bullinger (1504 -1575)
Writing to John Calvin on the execution of Michael Servetus
"I know that many have wished that you had not defended this principle; but many also thank you, and among others our church. Urbanus Regius has long ago proved, in a work of his own, and all the ministers of Luneberg agree with him, that heretics, when they are blasphemers, ought to be punished. There are also many other pious men who think the same, and consider that such offenders ought not only to be silenced, but to be put to death. Do not repent therefore of what you have done: the Lord will uphold your righteous efforts. I know that your disposition is not cruel, and that you will favour no barbarity. Who knows not, that a boundary must be set to things of this kind? But how it could be possible to spare such a man as Servetus, that serpent of all heresies, that most obdurate of men, I see not."[1] [1] Cited in Paul Henry, The Life and Times of John Calvin, the Great Reformer: Volume II, trans. Henry Stebbing (London: Whittaker and Co., 1849), 234.
Wilhelmus A' Brakel
(1636- 1711)
“It is the duty of
the civil government to uphold not only the second table of the law,
but also the first. It must see to it that God is honored. It may not
tolerate any idolatry, worship of images, or any false religion
within her jurisdiction, but must rather eradicate these. It must
prevent the vain use of God’s Name practiced by cursing, swearing,
and blasphemy. It must prevent the desecration of the Sabbath, punish
violators of this commandment, and see to it that the gospel is
proclaimed everywhere within its jurisdiction. It must see to it that
the church as the darling of the Lord Jesus is protected and
preserved and that neither internal dissension no any external
oppression disturb or destroy the church, but that instead she be
safely preserved in the use of the privileges and liberties which her
King Jesus has given her.” -From Vol. 2, Chapter 29, page 179
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