Presbyters and presbyteries are subject to the law of the land, and to the corrective power of the magistrate . . . In so far as the church is in the commonwealth, and a part of the commonwealth, not the commonwealth a part of the church . . . Ministers and elders are subjects and members of the commonwealth, and in that respect punishable by the magistrate if they transgress the law of the land. Yea, also as church officers they are to be kept with in the limits of their calling, and compelled (if need be) by the magistrate to do those duties which by the clear word of God and received principles of Christian religion, or by the received ecclesiastical constitutions of the church, they ought to do.

George Gillespie, Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, 82.