as the Apostle mentions Gal. 5. 20. and what they are may be known by their Companions there enumerated that the Apostle doth not speak of Errors in the Faith is plain because the Magistrates were then Heathens and he seems to speak of the present Powers when he saith The Powers that be c. though 't is true he speaks of them rather according to what they ought to be than according to what they were as may appear by those Words He is the Minister of God to thee for good which some in alledging this Scripture do little consider Doth the Apostle make Caligulâ— and Nero and Commodus with the whole Tribe of Usurpers Judges of the Faith of Christians and therefore Paul could appeal to Caesar only whether there was any Immorality or Crime in him deserving Death as the Jews caluminated 2. It is objected that the King is bound to serve God not only as a Man but as a King. I answer It is true and that may be done without Violation of Conscience in matters of Faith He may punish Immoralities Impieties and such as sin against their Profession and Conscience He may serve God by Protection of his Church by his Treasure Munificence praising and encouraging good Christians without bribing Men by extravagant Rewards and Wages which bear no Proportion to the Work by good Perswasions and Advice by his Wisdom in calling Councils and presiding in them and by defending even honest and well-meaning Hereticks from such cruel Men as put honest Men into Bear-Skins and then set the Dogs on them and care not what censure they pass upon Dissenters so lavish are they in calling every little thing Heresy Blasphemous and Damnable of which Chrysostom complains as too rife in his time in his Comment on Matthew but these Men learnt that Language of Antichrist the old Anathematizer Some urge the Power of the Kings of Israel in 2. Chron. 15. 13. That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to Death But this is already answered in Propos 2 d. 3. Some say if Liberty of Conscience be granted there will be Confusion I answer This is a Selfish Objection for I dare say the Objector would not use it if he stood in need of Liberty himself Unity and Uniformity are good things but we must come honestly by them I am for Unity but as Bp. Latimer said Unity in Verity and not in Popery There is Unity enough amonst Mahumetans in Spain and Muscovie and yet in Reality there is the greatest Babylonical Confusion that is mixture of Truth and Error which is the Mother of the greatest Dissension for whensoever the Force shall be taken off as is fit there must of necessity be the greatest Differences when Men shall use their own Judgments from proper Arguments and not as now one Judg for them all right or wrong at Adventures then it will appear that he who pretends himself most infallible and other Men to be Hereticks is most deceived and the greatest Dâ—ceiver and Heretick of all as 't is usual with them to be who most of all cry out upon other Men as Hereticks and Sâ—hismaticks to be indeed such themselves and if Hereticks were to be punished they deserve most of all to be punished 4. Some say If Liberty of Conscience be granted that then there can be no National Church I answer Was there then no National Church for the first three hundred Years before the Emperor received the Faith It is true there can be none with Coercion to it nor should there be any such What National Church can there be where the major part of the Nation are Infidels or Papists What Parochial Church where the major part of the Parish are such What National Churches can there be where the Soveraign Authorities are Infidel or Popish must they appoint the Bishops They are sure like to be good ones Constantine would set up no such National Church but suffered Arians Novatians and others to have their Churches and Bishops And Mr. Heylin saith there were Bishops in Poland but no Man forced by the Civil Sword and Bishops could uphold when the Emperours were against them but now we think as good no Bishop if all that live within such a part of the Country be not forced to be subject to him as being in his Diocess That Church may be said to be National when the most are of it and especially when the Soveraign Authority doth countenance it doth establish and encourage it by favourable Laws and Priviledges The best way to make a National Church was by such healing Principles as these For Magistrates to command as little as may be and People to obey as much as they can besides the Test against Popery to require as little to be subscibed to as is possible and that in the words of the Scripture To let the Parishes where the Fault is committed to examine and censure gross and notoriously scandalous Offendors and order the needful Rites and Ceremonies of their own Church without chargeable Travelling tedious Suits crafty Pleadings Quirks of Law and Pettefoggeries Fees and Charges Extortion and Barretry in forreign Courts who indeed have nothing to do in such matters not easily to impose a Pastor upon a Parish without their Consent nor a President Bishop upon his Clergy without their Consent And he with the chief of them to ordain Ministers and see that they who receive the Magistrates Maintenance do the Work accordingly I am so far from being against Bishops that where there is one I would there were many more 5. Others say Why do they then deny the Papists Liberty 1. Because the Papists are gross Idolaters against Natural Light. 2. Because the Papists will give no Liberty And if they do promise it and swear it by virtue of the Decrees of Popes and Councils they must not perform it longer than the Pope pleaseth if they will be true to their Religion 3. Because the Papists introduce a Foreign Power viz. the Pope with his Locusts to burthen the Land and emunge the People and cheat them of their Money and therefore no more tolerable than Regraters or Forestallers c. 4. Because the Papists where they get full Power are unmeasurably cruel Bishop Bramhall against Militeir saith that they have equalled if not exceeded the Heathens in Cruelty and now of late they have outdone themselves witness their Dragooning in France and Savoy and the like in other places Otherwise The Papists are not to be punished as Hereticks Queen Elizabeth and our Kings do expresly deny that they punished them meerly for their Religion Indeed our Laws were very cruel against them but never executed in any very high degree and as to any great Violence or Severity I wish they were so moderated as to be fit to be executed and with consideration of all mollifying Circumstances and not one Man to suffer for the Offence of another IV. My fourth and last Conclusion is this An
11. suffered Perfecution was very unlikely to perswade the Galatian Magistrates to persecute 'T is also certain that those Judaizers were Men full of moral Impiety and Persecutors of others The same Answer may serve for them who were blamed Rev. 2. 20. for suffering Jezabel the false Prophetess to seduce but to what viz. to Fornication and Idolatry Moreover what Toleration is here blamed is easily proved by this that the Christians were then no Magistrates but were by sound Doctrine to have stopped the Mouths and convinced Gain-sayers by the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and if the seven Churches be prophetical as hath of late been very well proved we know who they were that had the temporal Sword and how well they managed it in the Thyatirian Interval they were certainly damnable Hereticks and such as deserved to be punished for their innumerable Crimes if they had had their due As an Appendix to this Argument let it be considered that the Apostles and Primitive Christians being accounted Hereticks by the generality of Men were very unlikely to have put such a Sword into the hands of their Enemies as to teach them that Hereticks were to be punished by the Civil Magistrate And our Saviour Christ laying the Foundation of his Church in his own Blood and the Blood of his Apostles and Disciples was very unlikely to prescribe a way for the shedding the Blood of his Enemies by a judicial Trial in humane Courts for that wherein their Consciences were thorowly satisfied as true and good and therefore must needs think themselves honest and innocent and the Christians unjust and inhumane notwithstanding all their preaching up of Meekness and the Example of the most meek and merciful Jesus who endured such Contradiction of Sinners against himself what had that been but to disgrace the Glory of Christian Martyrdom as when our Saviour biddeth Peter to put up his Sword Matth. 26. 52. he giveth this reason For they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword intimating nothing of real worth and excellency in the Sufferings of Christians by the Sword if themselves should take the Sword as a matter but of quid pro quo He wanted not more effectual Souldiers to have made use of against his Persecutors viz. whole Legions of Angels II. I argue from Divine Authority affirmatively Our Saviour doth condemn Persecution in meer Causes of Religion in that Parable of the Tares Matth. 13. and so Chrysostom Austin and others both ancient and modern have expounded the place The Reapers are to be Angels not Men those Words Let them grow together cannot forbid Excommunication and therefore Let them grow together must forbid temporal Excision and if that should be taken only to signify eventually that there would be Tares to the End of the World yet there is a good Argument in the Caution ver 29. Lest while ye gather the Tares ye root up the Wheat also for though Men may think that they can distinguish clearly enough betwixt Tares and Wheat in some cases of Heresy yet as wise Men as they have found themselves deceived Acts 26. 9. And let Men give way to judicial Proceedings in this kind and the Ignorance and Rashness of Men will pluck up ten Orthodox Professors for one Heretick I am sure they have hither to pluck'd up many more Now in Civil Causes there is not the like danger wherein the Criminals own Consciences accuse them for the most part and they cannot deny the justness of the Law but deny their own particular Fact which made St. Cyprian say to Demetrian Proconsul of Africa Torqueri enim debui si negarem nunc autem cum sponte confitear c. quid tormenta admoves confitenti 2. Consider also how our Saviour rebuked his Disciples when they called for Fire from Heaven upon the Samaritans who received him not when his Face was as though he would go to Jerusalme Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of i. e. how unsuitable these killing Spirits or Dispositions of yours are to the Times of the Gospel or that the Times of the Gospel require you to be of other Dispositions see Dr. Hammond in loc It is manifest that our Saviour opposeth not fault to fault as if the Samaritans fault was less deserving Punishment nor doth it appear that he opposeth the private Passions of his Disciples as Desire of Revenge or the like to the publick Spirit of Elias but he opposeth the Severity of legal Times to the eminent and extraordinary Grace of the Times of the Gospel as appears by the words following ver 56. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy Mens Lives but to save them as if he had said Ye must not be so prodigal of Mens Lives now the Saviour of the World is come to lay down his own Life for the ransom of other Mens 3. Some also argue from those words of the Apostle 2 Cor. 10. 4. For the Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal where tho the word carnal doth signify weak as the word Flesh is often used 〈…〉 gnify Weakness yet the words do imply that the Christians Weapons are spiritual and of another sort distinct from those which worldly Souldiers use III. My next Argument is drawn à Regulâ Fidei from the Rule of Faith viz. the Scriptures it is not proper to say that the Scripture is Judex Controversiarum the Judg of Controversies but it is Norma Fidei the Rule of Faith this I take here for granted Now this Rule is too hard to be understood to be introduced into humane Courts for civil coaction by temporal Punishments for unto the right determination of many Questions in Religion the Scriptures must be well translated various Copies must be consulted Figures of Speech must be known and the Idiom or Properiety of Language with many obsolete Customs the Analogy of Religion the Context and Coherence of Words comparing Scripture with Scripture are to be minded besides many Prejudices from diversity of Interpretations Authority Education and Company c. must be considered all which make it so easy for a Man to be mistaken as to exempt his Error from the cognizance and animad version of humane Courts by civil coercion they who are the great Persecutors when they please and it serves their turns can make large declamations of the Obscurity of Scripture even to little better than Blasphemy and Atheism saying it is but a Leaden Rule a Nose of Wax and yet see not what a horrible folly and detestable Impiety it is to quote Scripture to an fro whether a Man shall be burnt as many poor honest innocent Men yea even Women were in Queen Mary's Days after the Doctors had disputed of Hoc est corpus meum and whether Hoc was an individuum vagum or no If these things had been only ridiculous they might have been born but tending to so much Mischief and Murder they were intolerable
which some say of forcing the external not internal Acts of Faith I shall speak to that afterward V. My fifth Argument is drawn ab axiomate viz. from that received Axiom Dominium non fundatur in Gratiâ that Dominion is not founded in Grace which I know to be chieâ—ly understood of Soveraignty But there is a gradual Parity of the Reason upon which that Axiom is founded which may be reciprocally applied to Subjects for Pagans though they cannoâ— be lawful Dispensers of the Mysteries of Christ nor Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven yet they may be lawful Kings and lawful Subjects lawful Husbands lawful Masters and lawful Possessors of their Lives Liberties and Estates Christian Religion doth not allow Servants to deny Obedience to their Masters according to the Flesh except they may be made free nor Masters to turn away their Servants contrary to their Covenants nor ought Christian Magistrates to deny Protection to whom it is due though they be not Christians and perhaps was due before either of them was Christian What might a good moral Heathen say if your Christianity stirreth you up either to tyrannize or to rebel sor causes of mere Religion Malo Venusinam quam te Cornelia Mater Si cum magnis Virtutibus affers Grande Supercilium Indeed Errors in Religion may have such intolerable Injury mixt with them as may excuse if not free both the one and the other but I speak of merely Religious Errors It is true wicked Men want the Blessing of God to them upon what they possess they have not a sanctified use of things but they have a lawful Title and 't is as much Theft to steal from them as the best Godly Men in the World. And therefore Heresy can be no sufficient ground to dispossess any Man of what he hath for that can only denominate a Man not Godly or Gracious or to be no excellent Person but Men are not to be punished by the Civil Sword because they are not excellent Persons It is generally thought that Soveraign Authority be it as absolute as it will is founded at least in implicite pact or trust which was necessary in all Nations before Christianity came into the World and when it did it was not in the Christian Power to betrust that nor is it likely that the Community would trust their temporal Rights with the contingent Opinions of their Governours and therefore that bloody persecuting Opinion must needs it self be an Heresy with moral Impiety mixt with it and intolerable as being at Inlet to Thievery and Tyranny on the one Hand and Rebellion on the other And we see by Experience that the principal Hyperaspists and Defenders of the bloody Tenent I mean the Papists do not stick to rebel against to depose and murther Heretical Princes merely for Religion as they are encouraged to do by the Decrees of their Popes and Councils by which whether Kings or Subjects they are bound the one to persecute the other to rebel in case of Heresy though no Civil Injury be offered whatsoever Oaths they may have taken Here it may be objected that what Persecutors do now is according to Law. I answer no humane Authority can justly make such Acts of Sequestration or Confiscation or impose Fines much less such unreasonable Fines as they are wont to do for things merely Religious what is that else but to establish Iniquity by a Law then they say they do not force Men to embrace the Faith but punish Relapsers I answer that Men are forced into Opinions by Law and Fear of Punishment or are surprized by Education and Custom before they are able or fit to judg or are deceived by the plausible reasons of abler Men without hearing what other Men could say to the contrary And then if any Man was to be free from Punishment before he turned he ought to be as free to return except some sufficient cause in Nature or Reason could be shown to dissolve his Right in the one case more than in the other to relapse indeed for any by or worldly ends is a great Sin in the sight of God and fit for him to judg of whose Judgment is according to Truth There are a great many things both in Doctrine and Discipline for which some are very zealous but the greatest part do so little understand or apply their minds to understand that they may turn and return ten times over for what they know and yet the Zealots will engage them to be of their sides as for the great Persecutors their talk of Relapse is but a Pretence for they persecute all of all sorts Again it may be objected that now the Ministers Ecclesiastical Preferments may be endangered by Heretical Doctrine which Preferments are settled by Law. I answer that that Settlement cannot be good so far as it abridgeth any Man or deprives him of that Right which is vested in him by the Law of Nature which is for the Parishioner to have his Freedom in matters of Religion as well as the Rector of the Parish who turns a just Reward into Oppression and Bribery when he useth it to another Mans Wrong what ever Declamations or Defamations such Men may make for their own ends I answer further that the Ministers spiritual Title is founded in Grace viz. for a certain spiritual use which when the Office proves needless or vain the Title falls of it self because the Foundation is sunk away from it Now though in the present Objection we suppose the Office well founded and terminated in a good use yet in those Offices which are not essential to Civil Government in order to the temporal Weal of the Publique but founded in Grace for spiritual ends the Usefulness whereof is best judged by such as are spiritual the Right is likewise best judged by them also and to be reputed but as doubtful and disputable as to others and consequently it cannot be an Offence so great and of the same Nature to deny that Right to oppose it or undermine it as it is to oppose Civil Natural Right which is all the World over unquestionable especially when that Religious Right is but remotely endangered and not actually opposed by Sedition or other Endeavours without the Command of the Soveraign Authority paying all Dues in the mean time according to Law. If a Petition was preferred to the Parliament that our Prelates who in this Latitude of Diocess are indeed Arch-Bishops might be made without any new Ordination by Patent or Commission only and before they enter upon their Offices be bound to declare that they do not hold their Jurisdiction in that Latitude to be jure divino viz. as distinct from Presbyters or such parochial Bishops as watch over the Souls of the People and that the Means of the Church might be brought into a common stock and more equally distributed as they in their Wisdom shall think fit the Petitioner in the mean time paying their Duties till such Determination of the
Soveraign Authority I see not how they could be justly blamed for such a Petition VI. My sixth Argument shall be drawn ab absurdo from the absurd Consequences which follow that detestable Opinion of forcing Mens Consciences to say nothing that the National Churches are yet very imperfectly reformed and therefore very unlikely to manage the Sword well some of them punishing one thing and some another and some of them in the same Church in divers times punishing diversly as several parties accidentally get into Authority The Sword will cut only the Honest and Consciencious who dare not dissemble the rest for the most part will temporize and run home again when they see their Opportunity and revenge themselves upon them who were so rough with them and shamed them so much and this temporizing and turning merely for lucres sake and to save themselves makes Religion very ridiculous and weakens the Repute and Authority of the Professors as but Atheists and Men of no real Religion as truly the Atheists have the Advantage of all Men in this Regard for to be sure their Consciences are not so scrupulous but they can subscribe to every thing they can dissemble and comply for their own ends with all Times and Parties yea and under the Disguise of Religion help to make all true Religion odious by persecuting Men as Hereticks and Schismaticks not because they have no Religion but because they have as they think too much and are religious in good earnest and then these Men applaud themselves and think they have got a great Argument for their Atheism when they see other Men make Religion but a Daunce after the Pipe of the Times Then to force Men to the Service of God makes often but Hyprocites whose presence there should be voluntary or else it is neither acceptable to God who requires the Heart nor to good Men who must needs desire the greatest Unanimity and Freedom of Consent that may be in their joynt Addresses to the Throne of Grace which in worldly things is otherwise for if a Man doth not pay his Debts with a good Will it matters not so the Creditor be paid he is satisfied Again except the Persecutions be more severe than good Natures can endure to execute and the Sectaries but few they either make Sects or make the Sectaries obstinate who otherwise might come to the publique Assemblies were they not exasperated by the Violence of them who would bring them thither and their Rigioties when they come there Now how should they worship God together who are Persecutors one of another who bite and devour each other and for that Reason can hardly think one another to be Christians as indeed a Persecutor will have much ado to defend himself to be a true Christian as great a Zealot as he may take himself to be for the Christian Religion Likewise Persecution gives way to the Rabble to deride and insult over Men much better than themselves and to other Men to get some part of a base Livelihood by informing or to vent their private Malice and Revenge upon old Grudges and the Heats and Inflammations of Disputation that so they may have their Wills over them whom they could not overcome in Controversy also to the Cruelty of covetous Men who are too timerous of losing their own Preferments or lurch a 〈…〉 other Mens Then it often makes Magistrates but the Ministers Executioners and that in things which they neither understand nor have reason to understand from their Age Sex manner of Education meanness of Parts Passion Employment c. and which they who study all their Lives and as far as we know without prejudice cannot agree about and in things which Magistrates have no reason to trust other Men as they may in Physick and Civil Causes In what a horrid manner was Q. Mary abused by the Priests And I have read in the Life of King Edward the 6 th that when Archbishop Cranmer urged him to sign the Warrant for the burning Joan Butcher an Arian the King vehemently refused but at last yielded through much importunity saying it was Cranmer's doing and he should answer for it which the Historian saith brought him under Censure he being afterward burnt himself for an Heretick If they make themselves suspicious who choose to sell their Wares in a dark Shop what do they do who sell them by the Light of such Fires The Lord Falkland and Dr. Hammond excuse the Protestants from much of this barbarous Cruelty confessing a little to be too much To this Head I may reduce an Argument ab incommodo as that it makes the Magistrates to make themselves parties in the Factions of their Subjects and many times run needless Hazards from the ill humours of their People and makes the several Parties to bandie against one another and against the Government which will make work enough for the wisest Man in the World to know how to govern such unruly People who are always striving to get the Civil Sword into their Hands not for common Defence but to oppress their Antagonists often quarrelling about Questions in themselves perhaps not very material to Religion which have been long disputed and may be disputed sine fine as the Controversies about Free-Will Election and Reprobation have been Nor is it for the Magistrates Interest that Men who might live usefully in the Common-Wealth should be kept in Jails for disciplinary notions in Religion which are uncertain or manifestly false supposing Men to be Churches or pure Churches which are not so like making Shoes for all Men by one Last and the same Prayers to serve for Men of contrary Tempers and in contrary Circumstances as we have lately experienced It destroys trading when Men cannot go freely about their business and lay out their Stocks with security nor dare Neighbours freely lend Monies to others for fear they should be beggared by Religious Fines Lastly It could not reasonably be expected that Reformation from such a huge mass of Errors and Confusion should be perfected simul semel but though all Reformers cannot agree in their Judgments about some weighty things in Doctrine and Discipline yet except they make account all to be destroyed by the common Enemy it is most certainly the Interest of all who have departed from the Roman Pontific to join all together as one Man so far should they be from persecuting one the other and say I am as thou art my Horses as thy Horses c. Which I say not to propagate the true Faith by Force but by such honest and lawful means as God hath wonderfully put into their Hands to defend themselves against their bloody and implacable Adversaries who have lately appeared in their Colours and gone about to destroy all the Northern Hereticks with a Vengeance as it is phrased by a late learned Author of a Treatise concerning Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws who hath displayed the Cruelty of their Decrees and Canons and clearly proved that
erroneous and heretical Conscience is not free in things meerly Religious from the Judgments of God nor from the Censures of the Church by Admonition and Excommunication in Causes purely Ecclesiastical where there is any gross scandal or danger by the Leaven of Infection for these two were the chief Causes of Excommunication in the Primitive Church and that chiefly in case of moral Impieties which now are or should be carefully look'd to by the Christian Magistrate and therefore we have now so much the less need of Excommunication our Neighbours who may be offended being also Christians as well as we as likewise neither have we so great need of Deacons and Deconesses now our Sick and Poor are provided for by the Christian Magistrates however it is still of very good use if it be managed by the Church where the Crime is committed and who are best able to judg and not by Forreigners nor buoying Men up to Obstinacy for every little thing for Fees and Groat-matters Now though Excommunication be concerned only in gross things yet the Conscience is bound to Obedience not only to the Ordinances of Christ but even to the laudable Rites and Orders of that particular Church where a Man liveth or converseth or to the Churches as associated for Order and Concord-sake without Infringement on the Rights of particular Congregations or Churches or to the Customs of the Church whiâ—h are useful at least not hurtful as is undeniably proved from St. Paul's Discourse of Womens vailing their Faces 1 Cor. 11. and by his Discourse of speaking with Tongues 1 Cor. 14. and truly if a Man doth not profess himself unsatisfied as to the Lawfulness of such Customs or Ceremonies which are pretended to be but for the Decency of the Administration of the Service of God I for my part take it to be a Peevishness and Crossness not to observe them and to be over-scrupulous is but to be superstitious on the one hand as some under Pretence of Obedience to Authority in indifferent things have been too rigorous offending as grosly against Rom. 14. as the Papists by Latin Prayers do against 1 Cor. 14. these following Rules I think would do well to be observed concerning indifferent things 1. That we entertain them but as alterable things in which Authority may use their Liberty to change or abolish them as the Peace and Edification of the Churches shall require without fear of offending the Papists in making use of our Liberty which tends rather to do them and some carnal Protestants good for they are in manifest Slavery to their Customs or however may do our own People good viz. that they may never come to be enslaved so bad as Papists are Vide Theses Arminii 2. They be not oppressive by their Multitude as Augustin complained of them in his time 3. That they be not dubious nor subject to breed Scruples in Mens Minds and Factions amongst them 4. Not savouring of Superstition thus the Primitive Church was troubled with Judaizers and Gentilizers according to the several Schools out of which the Christians came 5. Not wholly needless but such as have some convenience For indifferent may be considered two ways 1. Absolutely as opposite to convenient as to say it is indifferent that is it hath nothing good nor bad in it at all such things scarce fall under deliberation and surely no prudent Governours will command any such things in Religion though in Civil Things possibly they may as Captains meerly to try their Souldiers Obedience 2. Comparatively it is indifferent that is it is not unlawful by any Law of God commanding or forbidding it and it may be another thing might serve the turn as well yet there is some convenience in it without doubt Governours may command in such things and all People which are concerned and satisfied of their Lawfulness are bound to obey or else all Government would be vain yet are such Commands even of Magistrates as far as they are concerned except there interpose some Circumstances which may superadd a civil or moral consideration but directive and paternal as were those of the Christian Bishops and Councils under the Pagan Emperours the Civil Magistrate by becoming a Christian ipso facto acquires a Right as the Head of all Political Authority in the National Churches concerning matters of Prudence and Concord being Parens Patriae and Pater-Familias and may in that regard be called the Bishop of his Kingdoms as Constantine was called the Universal Bishop of the Empire and as we commonly say that every Master of a Family is a Bishop in his own House But in such cases there is no necessity to think that such kind of Magistrates Commands must always be back'd with Civil Punishments or else Authority is despised for God himself as many Authors do say from 1 Cor. 7. 38. doth counsel us to do better when he is yet pleased if we do well and doth not punish us for the breach of all things which he commands us 6. They should be such as agree with the Analogy of the Christian Religion with the plainness and simplicity of it c. not such as are fitter for Theatrical Shows and Pomp to feed the carnal Eyes and Ears of the People more than for the decent administration of the Service of a crucified Saviour 7. We must have a care not to content our selves with a meer formal and customary way of serving God in a road of outward and bodily Observations so to flamm off our Consciences rather than to study real Godliness Mortification true Faith Love and Charity toward God and Man above which if any Man advanceth Rites and Ceremonies let him boast what he will of his Obedience he turneth lawful things into Pharisaism Washing of Hands was no unlawful thing of it self 8. I conceive that they are not to be made Conditions of Communion so as Men may by their Contumacy be buoy'd up to Excommunication for that is to declare a Man to be no Christian but as an Heathen which is too censorious to say of one who for ought you know may be really unsatisfied of the lawfulness of things propounded which are indeed indifferent or else he would willingly observe them indeed if they be very perspicuously indifferent 't is a shrewd suspicion of a factious Mind but Proof and not Suspicion must be the ground of Punishment Thus have I pro modulo through God's Goodness satisfied such Questions as do appertain to Liberty of Conscience FINIS The Antients thought it fit the Crime should be judged where it was commited