brianeschen
Puritan Board Junior
A friend of mine shared this quote with me from Turretin as a good summary of the historic view of the two kingdoms. Enjoy!
Turretin On The Political Government Of The Church
Thirty-Fourth Question: The Political Government Of The Church
What is the right of the Christian magistrate about sacred things, and does the care and recognition of religion belong in any way to him?
We affirm.
II.) They sin in excess who claim all ecclesiastical power for the magistrate…
They sin in defect who remove him (the magistrate) all care of ecclesiastical things so that he does not care what each one worships and allows free power to anyone of doing and saying whatever he wishes in the cause of religion.
They also sin in defect who, although they ascribe to the magistrate the care of nourishing and defending the Church, so that he may kindly cherish and powerfully defend it, still leave nothing of recognition and nothing of judgment concerning religion save the execution alone to him. They rest upon this foundation – that this knowledge and judgment about matters of faith is proper to the ecclesiastical order, whose decrees the magistrate is bound to respect and perform.
The orthodox (holding the mean between these two extremes) maintain that the pious and believing magistrate cannot and ought not to be excluded from all care of religion and sacred things, which has been enjoined upon him by God. Rather this right should be circumscribed within certain limits that the duties of the ecclesiastical and political order not be confounded, but the due parts left to each…
Francis Turretin
Institutes of Elenctic Theology Vol. III pg. 316