The Magistrate and the Two Tables
Is the civil magistrate the keeper of both tables of the Decalogue?
Mixed
Background
Reformed political theology had held the civil magistrate responsible for both tables of the Decalogue (*custos utriusque tabulae*): the second table (duties to neighbour) and also the first table (duties to God). The magistrate was thus to suppress public idolatry, blasphemy, and heresy, and to protect and promote the true religion. This had been Geneva's practice under Calvin, Heidelberg's under the Electors, and the Scottish settlement's after 1638. The Solemn League and Covenant (1643) had committed England, Scotland, and Ireland to a uniform Reformed religion under magisterial enforcement. But Roger Williams (in Rhode Island from 1636), the Independents at Westminster, and the radical sects of the army were pressing broader religious liberty. The question came to a head in the drafting of WCF XXIII in 1646.
The Assembly’s handling
WCF XXIII (1646 text) committed the magistrate to *custos utriusque tabulae*: XXIII.3 gave the civil magistrate authority to take order 'that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed.' XX.4 made the magistrate the punisher of those who 'publish such opinions, or maintain such practices, as are contrary to the light of nature, or to the known principles of Christianity.' This is the high-water mark of the *custos utriusque tabulae* tradition in confessional Reformed thought. The 1788 American revision rewrote both clauses to align with the new federal disestablishment settlement: the magistrate's duty is to protect, not to direct or coerce, religion. The Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) tradition retained the 1646 language; the mainline American Presbyterian tradition follows the 1788.
Parties
The 1646 custos-utriusque-tabulae position
The civil magistrate is keeper of both tables of the Decalogue. He must suppress public heresy and blasphemy, call synods, and establish the true religion. The Solemn League and Covenant settlement.
- Samuel Rutherford (c. 1600–1661)
- George Gillespie (1613–1648)
- Archibald Johnston of Wariston (1611–1663)
- Cornelius Burgess (1589–1665)
The 1788 American revision
The civil magistrate protects the church from violence and danger but does not prefer one denomination over another, nor compel any to the true religion. The disestablishment settlement of the American Constitution.
Roger Williams's liberty-of-conscience position (outside the Assembly)
The civil sword has no jurisdiction over the conscience. The magistrate's domain is civil peace and the second table; the first table belongs entirely to the conscience and the voluntary association. *The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution* (1644).
Confessional language
WCF XXIII.3 (1646): 'The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed.' WCF XXIII.3 (American 1788): 'Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and sacraments…yet, as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the Church of our common Lord, without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest…'
Ontology placement
This crux bears on the following attribute of the Westminster ontology. The Westminster baseline value is marked WCF.
VIII · Civil & Last Things · Magistrate's Role
Legacy
The split between the 1646 text (still confessional in the Reformed Presbyterian and Free Church traditions) and the 1788 American revision (the PCA, OPC, and other American Presbyterian bodies) is the longest-running confessional fracture of the Westminster Standards. Modern debates about the magistrate's role — establishment-versus-disestablishment, religious liberty, public-square religion — turn on this fracture. Roger Williams's position, marginal in 1644, became the eventual American settlement.