The grave duty of the magistrate was not to be taken lightly nor administered flippantly, nor was executed with exaggerated eschatological expectancy. Prudence and patience should guide the magistrate here, for the good of the church and commonwealth, not personal prejudice or private gain. Taking “care of God’s glory” and the preservation of religion and civil peace is the point. And this by removing “the external impediments of divine Worship or of Ecclesiasticall Peace,” which includes erroneous propagation and false worship. 

A few months ago, Jonathan Leeman debated Brad Littlejohn at Colorado Christian University on “Religious Liberty and the Common Good.” What the confrontation really amounted to was a question of the coercive power of civil authorities in religious matters. It is worth the watch. (The edited remarks from Leeman and Littlejohn were published here at American Reformer.)
In the course of the debate, Leeman fairly dubbed Littlejohn a “First Tabularian.” That is, a proponent of the magistrate’s duty to take note of and enforce the first table of the Decalogue, not merely the second. Littlejohn embraced and defended that decidedly traditional position ably. Leeman, self-professedly representing a Baptist position, nevertheless demurred.
This, it seems to me, is the fundamental divide within American Protestantism on this question. Will it be the Baptist position or the Magisterial one?
Per usual, someone else in our Protestant past has already addressed the question at hand. In this case, multiple persons, but we will take up just one: George Gillespie (1613-1648) who was unarguably conventional within the stream of historic Protestantism on the question at hand but, perhaps, best at expressing it.
The central focus of Gillespie’s Wholesome Severity (1645) was “Whether Christian Judges may lawfully punish Hereticks.” More directly, this introductory inquiry implied a more fundamental question:
The plaine English of the question is this: whether the Christian Magistrate be keeper of both Tables: whether he ought to suppresse his own enemies, but not Gods enemies, and preserve his own ordinances, but not Christ’s Ordinances from violation. Whether the troublers of Israel may be troubled. Whether the wilde boars and beasts of the forest must have leave to break down the hedges of the lord’s vineyard; and whether ravening wolves in sheeps clothing must be permitted to converse freely in the flock of Christ.
Were heresy and schism really to be admitted to society “under the name of tender consciences” like a “pestilence or a Gangrene”? (Published in 1645, Gillespie’s Severity could not here have been referencing Thomas Edwards’ (1599-1647) infamous and massive Gangraena (1646), but the terminological overlap is worth noting— Gillespie was decidedly more gracious in his presentation than Edwards.)
Gillespie’s entire purpose is to “vindicate the lawfull, yea necessary use of the coercive power of the Christian Magistrate in suppressing and punishing hereticks and sectaries.”
Gillespie was self-consciously responding to Baptists, viz., Christopher Blackwood (1604-1670), a Baptist in Ireland, and his Storming of Antichrist in his two Last and Strongest Garrisons (1644), which railed against infant baptism on conscientious grounds; and Roger Williams’ (1603-1683) The Bloody Tenent of Persecution (1644), which needs no introduction; and also, William Walwyn’s (1600-1681) The compassionate Samaritane (1644). (A compatriot of John Lilburne and other undesirables, Walwyn appears to have been as much a rabble rouser as Williams.)
To this end, Gillespie distinguished himself from two alternative views.
First, the opinion of “the Papists.” Their position was that all heretics who, following notice and instruction, “persist in their error, are to be without mercy put to death.” The second view was that of Baptists, viz., that no heretics or sectarians should endure any punishment but should be granted “liberty and toleration.” Gillespie finds both extremes wanting.
The third way, if you will, was Gillespie’s. The magistrate possesses and ought to exercise coercive power in suppressing heresy and schismatics with a level of discrepancy, discrimination, and prudence. That is, according to “the nature and degree of the error, schism, obstinacy, and danger of seducing others” presented by the heresy or blasphemy in view. Gentility in the execution of this duty cannot be neglected. Its application is not wanton or indiscriminate. The goal is not the “building of Zion with bloud.” For “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men.” Gillespie insisted that it was his “soul’s desire that the secular coercive power may be put forth upon those only who can by no other means be reclaimed, & who can be no longer spared without a visible rupture in the Church, and the manifest danger of seducing and misleading many souls.” Neither should adiaphora be coercively chastised. The grave duty of the magistrate was not to be taken lightly nor administered flippantly, nor was executed with exaggerated eschatological expectancy. Prudence and patience should guide the magistrate here, for the good of the church and commonwealth, not personal prejudice or private gain. Taking “care of God’s glory” and the preservation of religion and civil peace is the point. And this by removing “the external impediments of divine Worship or of Ecclesiasticall Peace,” which includes erroneous propagation and false worship.
This, says Gillespie, was the consensus Protestant opinion expressed by Theodore Beza and John Calvin, Wolfgang Musculus and Heinrich Bullinger, Martin Bucer and Johannes Brenz, and the Helvetic, French, Saxon, and Belgic Confessions. Of course, Gillespie refers to Scripture as well for support, Exodus and Deuteronomy, in particular.
But is the New Testament magistrate bound by the same standard as that of the Old regarding heretics, violators of the first table? Indeed, they are, and Gillespie marshals Johannes Piscator’s commentary on Exodus to demonstrate that the Christian magistrate is “obliged to those things in the Judiciall law which are unchangeable, & common to all Nations: but not to those things which are mutable, or proper to the Jewish Republike,” for these are “laws concerning Morall trespasses.” These are perennial things which include blasphemy and heresy against the very source of the governing power, God himself.
From Scripture, we know that God intended the perpetuation of the moral law imbedded in and undergirding the law of Moses by the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) which vindicated the judicial and moral law against the false traditions of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
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Written by Jon D. Payne |
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
It is the glorious gospel of grace that will drive you to find a solid church home, foster a strong devotional life, establish healthy friendships, and pursue sexual purity. Good intentions, personal resolutions, and parental expectations may inspire for a time. But only by abiding in the incomparable love of Christ will you remain steadfast and immovable during your first year in college and beyond.

Dear college freshman,
Ready or not here it comes: In a couple weeks you will begin classes as a college freshman. It’s no exaggeration that these next four years will be some of the most meaningful and formative of your life. For this reason, it’s vital that from the first day you set foot on campus you have the right perspective—one informed and shaped by the wisdom of God’s Word.
Perhaps you already know today’s typical college scene isn’t hospitable toward serious followers of Christ. In reality, it’s quite inhospitable, a spiritual war zone of sorts (Eph. 6:10–13). Drunkenness and sexual promiscuity are the norm, not the exception. Vulgarity is rampant. Porn is common. Academic integrity is increasingly elusive, and the winds of postmodernism blow briskly through the classroom. Consequently, the pressure on campus to conform to the world far outweighs any encouragement to live with biblical conviction.
That is why I’m writing to you—to encourage you to stand firm in the grace of God (1 Pet. 5:8–9, 12), and to let nothing come between you and Jesus during your freshman year.
Here is a five-part biblical strategy for maintaining a strong walk with God on campus.
1. Find a solid church home.
The first thing you need to do when starting your freshman year is find a good church. This is what they call a no-brainer. You need a church. Every Christian needs a church. A churchless Christian is a vulnerable Christian. Why? Because the local church is Christ’s ordained means of protecting, nourishing, equipping, and tending his blood-bought flock (John 21:15–17; Eph. 4:11–14). Jesus, the Good Shepherd, executes these tasks through spiritually qualified elders (1 Tim. 3:1–7). These undershepherds are called and set apart to faithfully proclaim the Word, administer the sacraments, pray, and watch over the souls of God’s children (1 Cor. 1:21; 11:23–26; Acts 6:4; Acts 20:28).
Therefore, dear freshman, if you neglect the ministry of the church during your college years you will be like a lost and exposed lamb in the wild, vulnerable to the evil one’s attacks (1 Pet. 5:8). Moreover, you will be impoverished of godly wisdom and accountability during a season of life when you need it most.
And not only do you need the church, but the church needs you. Christ has given you spiritual gifts to bless his body—yes, even in college. Christ’s body is healthiest when every member is doing their part. “When each part is working properly,” Paul writes, “the body grows so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16). You are a vital member of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–26).
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Until we realize that God is able to do “far more abundantly” than all that we can pray about or dream, we’ll keep operating in the kingdom of this world. We’ll develop a scarcity mindset that leads to anxiety and fear and exhaustion and apathy and impotence toward the kingdom of God. We can risk our money by giving generously to what God is doing. We can risk our own reputation because God already delights in us. Christians should be the most entrepreneurial, the most risk taking, the most audacious people in the world—because the Bible promises that God can do far more “than all that we ask or think.”

In Ephesians 3, the apostle Paul is praying for the Ephesian church, and his prayer is for us too. We see two themes emerge as he prays, and the first is for strength: “He may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (v. 16). He’s saying, Deep in your very being, I want you to be strong in the Spirit.
Then in verse 18, he prays that we would “have strength to comprehend” with the whole church, the fullness of God’s love. The world is in opposition to the kingdom of God, and it’s fighting to pull you away, to lure you back into its kingdom. You need strength, endurance and steadfastness to increase in your knowledge and everyday experience of the love of God. So, the second theme is God’s love. In verse 17, he prays that we would be “rooted and grounded in love,” and in verse 19, that we would “know the love of God that surpasses knowledge.” Paul wants you to experience God’s love, not just know that it exists. We need spiritual strength to increase our experiential knowledge of God’s love.
I listen to the Huberman Lab podcast, and one episode discussed the science of muscle growth. For a muscle to get stronger, it has to be stressed; there has to be weight, tension, exertion. Likewise, our spiritual heart—our spiritual strength—needs the same thing. God wants to stretch our faith, he wants us to seek him, to live daringly, to put our hands to the plow. Paul is essentially saying that our spiritual strength needs to grow to receive all that God is doing—to be filled with all the fullness of God. Jesus is ready to call you into something more than you can even ask or think or imagine, but maybe you’re not ready yet to receive it.
There’s a prayer from the Valley of Vision (a collection of Puritan prayers) that says, “There is still so much unconquered territory in my heart.”[1] Are there corners of your heart that are not given over to him? The book, Why Revival Tarries, asks something similar: “Can the Holy Spirit be invited to take us by the hand down the corridors of our souls? Are there not secret springs, and secret motives that control, and secret chambers where other things hold empire over the soul?”[2] That phrase, where other things hold empire over the soul, haunted me when I first read it. Likewise, the great theologian Augustine pleaded with the Lord: “Set love in order in me!”[3]
Your spiritual heart needs to get bigger to contain all that God has for you.
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