rod or in love and in the spirit of meekness i. e. Consider with your selves that seeing I have determined to visit the Church of Corinth whether when I come you had rather I should chastise you with the Apostolical Rod by exercising my Power of inflicting punishments and by consigning the refractory to those sharp and grievous Diseases that are wont immediately to follow Apostolical Censures or whether I should come with a more gentle and merciful design without being forced by your stubborness upon a necessity of using this severity among you As you behave your selves so may you expect to find me at my coming And thus again 2 Cor. 10. 6. He threatens them with his being in a readiness if he should come among them to revenge all their disobedience And upon this account he immediately professes himself not ashamed to boast of his Power and Authority in the Church And in the 13. Chapter of the same Epistle he again shakes the same Rod over them threatning that if their refractoriness force him to strike them with some Judgment that it should be a sharp and severe one If I come again I will not spare since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me These extraordinary inflictions were signs and evidences of his Apostleship And he would make them know that he was Commissioned by Christ to teach and govern their Church by making them to feel the sad effects of his Miraculous Power if nothing else would satisfie them about the right of his Authority And to the same purpose is the same Apostles command to the same Church concerning the incestuous Corinthian 1 Cor. 5. 5. that they should deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh i. e. that they should denounce the sentence of Excommunication against him which would amount to no smaller a Punishment than his being resign'd up to the power and possession of some evil spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. in 1. ad Cor. Hom. 15. to be tormented with Ulcers or some other bodily Diseases and Inflictions which was then the usual consequent of Excommunication The end of all which is as immediately follows The destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Iesus i. e. that being humbled and brought to a due sense of his Sin by the sadness of his Condition and the heavy strokes of this cruel Executioner of the Divine Justice this might be a means of working him to Repentance and Reformation And to the same end did the same Apostle deliver Hymeneus and Alexander unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme that being vexed and tormented by some evil spirit this might take down their proud and haughty stomachs and make them cease to traduce and disparage his Apostolical Authority when they had smarted so severely for contradicting it And thus was the Divine Providence pleased in the first Ages of the Church when it wanted the assistance of the Civil Magistrate to supply that defect by his own Almighty Power so necessary is a coercive Jurisdiction to the due Government and Discipline of the Church that God himself was fain to bestow it on the Apostles in a miraculous manner And thus was the Primitive Discipline maintain'd by Miracles of severity as long as it wanted the Sword of the Civil Power But when Christianity had once prevail'd and triumphed over all the oppositions of Pagan Superstition and had gain'd the Empire of the world into its own possession and was become the Imperial Religion then began its Government to re-settle where nature had placed it and the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was annexed to the Civil Power For as soon as the Emperours thought themselves concern'd to look to its Government and Protection and were willing to abet the Spiritual Power of the Clergy with their Secular Authority then began the Divine Providence to withdraw the miraculous Power of the Church in the same manner as he did by degrees all the other extraordinary Gifts of the Apostolical Age as their necessity ceased as being now as well supplied by the natural ordinary Power of the Prince So that though the Exercise of the Ministerial Function still continued in the Persons that were thereunto Originally Commissioned by our Saviour the Exercise of its Authority and Jurisdiction was restored to the Imperial Diadem and the Bishops became then as they are now Ministers of State as well as Religion and challenged not any Secular Power but what they derived from the Prince who supposing them best able to understand and manage the Interests of Religion granted them Commissions for the Government of the Church under himself and vested them with as much Coercive Power as was necessary for the Execution of their Office and Jurisdiction In the same manner as Judges are deputed by the Supreme Authority of every Common-wealth to govern the Affairs of Justice and to inflict the Penalties of the Law upon Delinquents So that Bishops neither have nor ever had any Temporal Authority but only as they are the Kings Ecclesiastical Judges appointed by him to govern Affairs of Religion as Civil or Secular Judges are to govern Affairs of Justice § 17. And now that the Government of all the Affairs of the Church devolved upon the Royal Authority assoon as it became Christian is undeniably evident from all the Laws and Records of the Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the time that the Emperors became Christian the Disposal and Government of Church Affairs depended entirely on their Authority Constantine was no sooner settled in his Imperial Throne but he took the settlement of all Ecclesiastical matters into his own Cognizance He called Synods and Councils in order to the Peace and Government of the Church he ratified their Canons into Laws he prohibited the Conventicles of the Donatists and demolish'd their Meeting-Houses he made Edicts concerning Festivals the Rites of Sepulture the Immunities of Churches the Authority of Bishops the Priviledges of the Clergy and divers other things appertaining to the outward Polity of the Church In the exercise of which Jurisdiction he was carefully followed by all his Successours which cannot but be known to every man that is not as utterly ignorant of the Civil Law as he in the Comedy who supposed Corpus Iuris Civilis to be a Dutchman The Code the Authenticks the French Capitulars are full of Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions The first Book of the Code treats of nothing but Religion and the Rites and Ceremonies of Publick Worship the Priviledges of Ecclesiastical Men and Things the distinct Offices and Functions of the several degrees in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and the Power and Jurisdiction of Bishops both in Civil and Religious Affairs and infinite other things that immediately concern the Interests of Religion And then as for the Authenticks Ecclesiastical Laws are every where scattered up and down through the whole Volume which being divided into nine Collations has not
A DISCOURSE OF Ecclesiastical Politie WHEREIN The Authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in Matters of External Religion is Asserted The Mischiefs and Inconveniences OF Toleration are Represented And all Pretenses Pleaded in Behalf of Liberty of Conscience are fully Answered The Third Edition LONDON Printed for Iohn Martyn at the Bell in S t Paul's Church-yard 1671. The PREFACE TO THE READER Reader I Cannot Imagine any thing that our Dissenting Zealots will be able to object against this Ensuing Treatise unless perhaps in some Places the Vehemence and Severity of its Style for cavil I know they must and if they can raise no Tolerable Exceptions against the Reasonableness of the Discourse it self it shall suffice to pick quarrels with Words and Phrases But I will assure thee the Author is a Person of such a tame and softly humour and so cold a Complexion that he thinks himself scarce capable of hot and passionate Impressions and therefore if he has sometimes twisted Invectives with his Arguments it proceeded not from Temper but from Choice and if there be any Tart and Vpbraiding Expressions they were not the Dictates of Anger or Passion but of the Iust and Pious Resentments of his Mind And I appeal to any Man who knows upon what sober Grounds and Principles the Reformation of the Church of England stands and how that its Forms and Institutions are not only countenanced by the best and purest times of Christianity but establisht by the Fundamental Laws of the Land whether he can so perfectly Charm and Stupifie his Passions as not to be chafed into some heat briskness when he seriously considers that this Church so rightly constituted and so duely authorised should be so savagely worried by a Wild and Fanatique Rabble that this Church so soberly modelled so warrantably reformed and so handsomly settled should have been so perpetually beleaguered and be yet not out of all danger of being rifled if not utterly demolisht by Folly and Ignorance that the publick Peace and Settlement of a Nation should be so wofully discomposed upon such slender and frivolous Pretenses and that after they have been so often and so shamefully baffled that both Church and State should be so lamentably embroyl'd by the Pride and Insolence of a few peevish ignorant and malepert Preachers And lastly that these Brain-sick People if not prevented by some speedy and effectual Remedy may in a little time grow to that Power and Confidence as to be able to use their own Language to shut the Heavens that they shall not rain i. e. to restrain the Highest Powers of Church and State from their wonted Influence and to have Power over the Waters to turn them into Blood i. e. to turn the still People of a State or Nation into War and Blood or to speak in our own plain English to tye the Hands of Authority to instigate the people of God to Rebellion and once more involve the Kingdom in Blood and Confusion Let the Reader consider all this as throughly and seriously as I have done and then be a Stoick if he can But besides this let any man that is acquainted with the Wisdom and Sobriety of True Religion tell me how 't is possible not to be provoked to scorn and indignation against such proud ignorant and supercilious Hypocrites who though they utterly defeat all the main Designs of Religion yet boast themselves its only Friends and Patrons signalize their Party by distinctive Titles and Characters of Godliness and brand all others howsoever Pious and Peaceable with bad Names and worse Suspicions who I say that loves and adores the Spirit of true Religion can forbear to be sharp and severe to such thick and fulsom abuses In that there is not any thing can so much expose or traduce true Piety as this sort of Hypocrisie because whilst Folly and Phantastry appears in the Vizour of Holiness it makes that seem as ridiculous as it self And hence the greatest Friends of true Goodness have always been the severest Satyrists upon False Godliness and our Blessed Saviour scarce seemed more concern'd to plant and propagate Christianity than to explode the Pharisaick Hypocrisie i. e. Religious Pride and Insolence I know but one single Instance in which Zeal or a high Indignation is just and warrantable and that is when it vents it self against the Arrogance of haughty peevish and sullen Religionists that under higher pretences to Godliness supplant all Principles of Civility and good Nature that strip Religion of its outside to make it a covering for Spight and Malice that adorn their peevishness with the Mask of Piety and shroud their Ill Nature under the demure pretences of Godly Zeal And stroak and applaud themselves as the only Darlings and Favourites of Heaven and with a scornful pride disdain all the Residue of Mankind as a Rout of worthless and unregenerate Reprobates Thus the only hot fit of Zeal we find our Saviour in was kindled by an Indignation against the Pride and Insolence of the Iews when he whipt the Buyers and Sellers out of the outward Court of the Temple For though they bore a blind and superstitious Reverence towards that part of it that was peculiar to their own Worship yet as for the outward Court the place where the Gentiles and Proselytes worship't that was so unclean unhallowed that they thought it could not be prophaned by being turn'd into an Exchange of Vsury Now this Insolent Contempt of the Gentiles and impudent conceit of their own holiness provoked the mild Spirit of our Blessed Saviour to such an height of Impatience and Indignation as made him with a seeming fury and transport of passion whip the Tradesmen thence and overthrow the Tables So hateful is all proud testy and factious Zeal to a loving and Divine Temper of mind And indeed what can we imagine more odious or mischievous than a spirit of Pride Peevishness and Animosity adopted into the Service of God This divides Religion into Factions and Parties engenders a sullen and unsociable Niceness towards all that herd not with themselves breeds nothing but rancour malice and envy and every thing that is destructive of the Common Peace and Amity of Mankind And when People Separate and Rendevouz themselves into distinct Sects and Parties they always confine all their kind Influences to their own Faction and look with a scornful and malignant Aspect upon all the rest of Mankind become Enemies and Outlaws to Humane Society and shatter in pieces that natural Peace and common Love that preserves the Welfare and Tranquillity of Humane Nature Their minds like the savage Americans are as contracted as their Herds and all that are not within the Fold of their Church are without the Sphere of their Charity this is entirely swallowed up within their own combination and 't is no part of their duty to commiserate or supply the Wants of the Vnregenerate As the Poet describes the Jewish Bigots Non
punish those who make it their business to propagate Irreligious Principles as the worst and most dangerous Enemies to the State But my Scorn and Indignation against the presumptuous lavishness of these redoubted Wight swells this Preface to too large and tedious a length and therefore I shall only crave leave to premise this one caution for the advantage of the ensuing Treatise and so have done viz. That in the management of this Debate I have been careful to confine my discourse to the weightiest and most material Considerations and have industriously waved all matters of an inferiour and subordinate Importance For to what purpose is it to examine every little Exception and every gay and plausible Appearance when the Enquiry is so clearly determinable by Arguments of the greatest Evidence and Concernment And therefore I have only represented the inconsistency of Liberty of Conscience with the first and Fundamental Laws of Government In which if I have spoken Reason I have without any more ado carried the cause if I have not I am content to lose my labour For there are no Considerations of equal Evidence and Importance with those that relate to the Peace and Settlement of Societies So that if those I have urged prove ineffectual all others drawn from less considerable Topicks would have been impertinent and so far from strengthning my discourse that they would rather have abated of its demonstrative Truth and Evidence for being in their own natures not capable of such enforcing and convictive Proofs to mix them with clearer and more certain Reasonings were only to allay their strength and dilute their perspicuity And for this Reason have I purposely omitted the Examination of that Argument that so strongly possesses the warm and busie brains of some undertaking men viz. that Liberty of Conscience would be mightily conducive to the advancement of Trade For whether it be so or so it matters not after it is proved to be apparently destructive of the Peace of Kingdoms And though perhaps it might be no difficult task to prove the vanity of their Conceit yet after this performance it would be at least a trifling and frivolous undertaking because no man can be so utterly forsaken of all Reason and Discretion as to think of promoting Traffick by any ways that are destructive of the Ends and Interest of Government And therefore if I have sufficiently proved that Liberty of Conscience is so 't is but an idle speculation after that to enquire what service it would do to the advancement of Trade because 't is already proved inconsistent with a greater Good than all the advantages of Commerce can amount to So that granting these Projecting People all they can demand and supposing their Design as serviceable to the benefits of Trade as they pretend yet what can be more shamefully imprudent than to put the Kingdom upon so great an hazard for so small an advantage Certainly Publick Peace and Settlement that is the first and Fundamental end of all Societies is to be valued above any advantages of Wealth and Trading and therefore if Liberty of Conscience as naturally tends to the disturbance of Government as it can to the advancement of Trade if any thing may be supposed to contribute to the Wealth of a Nation that tends to the dissolution of its Peace so vast a mischief must infinitely out-weigh this and a thousand other lesser advantages For there is nothing in the world of value enough to balance against Peace but Peace it self And therefore I confess I cannot but smile when I observe how some that would be thought wonderfully grave and solemn Statesmen labour with mighty Projects of setting up this and that Manufacture in their several respective Towns and Corporations and how eagerly they pursue these petty Attempts beyond the great Affairs of a more Publick and Vniversal Concernment and how wisely they neglect the Settlement of a whole Nation for the benefit of a Village or Burrough If indeed the Affairs of the Kingdom were in a fix'd and establish'd condition these Attempts might then have been seasonable and the enriching of particular places would be an Accession to the Wealth and Power of the whole Kingdom But whilst we are distracted among our selves with such a strange variety of Iealousies and Animosities whilst the Publick Peace and Settlement is so unluckily defeated by Quarrels and Mutinies of Religion and whilst the Consciences of men are acted by such peevish and ungovernable Principles to erect and encourage Trading Combinations is only to build so many nests of Faction and Sedition and to enable these giddy and humoursom People to create publick Disturbances For 't is notorious that there is not any sort of People so inclinable to Seditious Practices as the Trading part of a Nation and their Pride and Arrogance naturally increases with the improvement of their stock And if we reflect upon our late miserable Distractions 't is easie to observe how the Quarrel was chiefly hatch'd in the Shops of Tradesmen and cherish'd by the Zeal of Prentice-boys and City-gossips And hence it is that the Fanatick Party appears so vastly numerous and considerable above and beyond their real number partly because these bold and giddy People live in greater Societies of men and so are more observable whereas in Country Towns and Villages their account is inconsiderable and arises not to speak within compass above the proportion of one to twenty and partly because in those places where these Vermine naturally breed and swarm they are always most talkative and clamorous and full of Buzze and therefore though their party be much the least and the meanest Interest yet whilst their number is conjectured by their noise they make a greater Appearance than twice as many sober and peaceable men Riots and Tumults are much more remarkable than Societies of quiet and composed People and a rout of unlucky Boys and Girls raise a greater noise especially when they wrangle among themselves than all the Parish beside But whether they are more or less considerable 't is a very odd and preposterous piece of Policy to design the inriching of this sort of People whilst their heads are distemper'd with Religious Lunacies for it only puts weapons into the hands of Madmen wherewith they may assault their Governours Their Fundamental Principles incline them to perverse and restless Dispositions that never are nor will be satisfied with any establish'd frame of things And if the Affairs of Religion are not exactly model'd to their own nice and peremptory Conceptions that is ground enough to overturn the present Settlement and to new model the Church by a more thorow Reformation Now whilst men are under the power of this proud and peevish humour wealth does but only pamper and encourage their Presumption and tempt them to a greater boldness and insolence against Authority And if their Seditious Preachers do but blow the Trumpet to Reformation i. e. to have every thing alter'd they dislike how
ineffectual instruments of Uniformity because they have either been weakned through want of execution or in a manner cancell'd by the oppositions of Civil Constitutions For when Laws are bound under severe penalties and when the Persons who are to take cognisance of the Crime have not Power enough to punish it or are perpetually check'd and controul'd by a stronger Power no wonder if the Laws be affronted and despised and if instead of bringing mens minds to compliance and subjection they exasperate them into open contumacy Restraint provokes their stubbornness and yet redresses not the mischief And therefore it were better to grant an uncontroul'd Liberty by declaring for it than after having declared against it to grant it by silence and impunity The Prohibition disobliges Dissenters and that is one evil and the impunity allows them Toleration and that is a greater and where Governours permit what their Laws forbid there the Common-wealth must at once lose all the advantages of restraint and suffers all the inconveniences of Liberty So that as they would expect Peace and Settlement they must be sure at first to bind on their Ecclesiastical Laws with the streightest knot and afterward to keep them in force and countenance by the severest Execution in that wild and Fanatick Consciences are too headstrong to be curb'd with an ordinary severity therefore their restraints must be proportion'd to their unruliness and they must be managed with so much a greater care and strictness than all other principles of publick disturbance by how much they are more dangerous unruly § 8. For if Conscience be ever able to break down the restraints of Government and all men have Licence to follow their own perswasions the mischief is infinite and the folly endless and they seldom cease to wander from folly to folly till they have run themselves into all the whimsies and enormities that can debauch Religion or annoy the publick Peace The giddy Multitude are of a restless and stragling humour and yet withalso ignorant and injudicious that there is nothing so strange and uncouth which they will not take up with Zeal and Confidence Insomuch that there never yet was any Common-wealth that gave a real liberty to mens Imaginations that was not suddenly over-run with numberless divisions and subdivisions of Sects as was notorious in the late Confusions when Liberty of Conscience was laid as the Foundation of Settlement How was Sect built upon Sect and Church upon Church till they were advanced to such a height of Folly that the Usurpers themselves could find no other way to work their subversion and put an end to their extravagancies but by overturning their own Foundations and checking their growth by Laws and Penalties The humour of Fanaticising is a boundless folly it knows no restraints and if it be not kept down by the severity of Governours it grows and encreases without end or limit and never ceases to swell it self till it has broke down all the banks and restraints of Government Thus when the Disciplinarians had in pursuit of their own peevish and unreasonable Principles divided from the Church of England others upon a farther improvement of the same principles subdivided from them every new opinion was enough to found a new Church and Sect was spawn'd out of Sect till there were almost as many Churches as Families For when they were once parted from the order sobriety of the Church they lived in nothing could set bounds to their wild and violent Imaginations § 9. Schismaticks always run themselves into the same excess in the Church as Rebels and Seditious Persons do in the State who out of a hatred to Tyranny are restless till they have dissolved the Common-wealth into Anarchy Confusion and because some Kingly Governments have proved Tyrannical will allow no free States but under Republicks As was notorious in all the Apologies for the late Usurpers who took it for granted in general That all Government under a single Person was slavish and oppressive without respect to its particular Constitutions and that the very name of a Common-wealth was a sufficient preservation of the Peoples Liberties notwithstanding that those who managed it were never so Imperious and Arbitrary in the exercise of their Power And in the same manner our Church Dissenters out of abhorrency to the Papal Tyranny and Usurpation upon mens understandings never think the liberty of their Consciences sufficiently secured till they have shaken off all subjection to Humane Authority and because the Church of Rome by her unreasonable Impositions has invaded the Fundamental Liberties of mankind they presently conclude all restraints upon licentious Practices and Perswasions about Religion under the hated name of Popery And some Theological Empericks have so possess'd the peoples heads with this fond conceit that they will see no middle way between spiritual Tyranny and spiritual Anarchy and so brand all restraint of Government in Affairs of Religion as if it were Antichristian and never think themselves far enough from Rome till they are wandred as far as Munster Whereas the Church of England in her first Reformation was not so wild as to abolish all Ecclesiastical Authority but only removed it from those who had unjustly usurp'd it to its proper seat and restrain'd it within its due bounds and limits And because the Church of Rome had clogg'd Christianity with too many garish and burdensome Ceremonies they did not immediately strip her naked of all modest and decent Ornaments out of an over-hot opposition to their too flanting Pomp and Vanity but only cloathed her in such a Dress as became the Gravity and Sobriety of Religion And this is the Wisdom and Moderation of our Church to preserve us sober between two such unreasonable Extremes § 10. But not to run too hastily into particular disputes 't is enough at present to have proved in general the absolute necessity that Affairs of Religion should be subject to Government and then if they be exempt from the Jurisdiction of the Civil Power I shall demand Whether they are subject to any other Power or to none at all If the former then the Supreme Power is not Supreme but is subject to a Superiour in all matters of Religion or rather what is equally absurd there would be two Supreme Powers in every Common-wealth for it the Princes Jurisdiction be limited to Civil Affairs and the concerns of Religion be subject to another Government then may Subjects be obliged to what is impossible contradictory Commands and at the same time the Civil Magistrate requires him to defend his Country against an Invasion the Ecclesiastical Governour may command him to abandon its defence for the carrying on an Holy War in the Holy Land in order to the recovery of our Saviour's Sepulchre from the Possession of the Turks and Saracens But seeing no man can be subject to contradictory obligations 't is by consequence utterly impossible he should be subject to two Supreme Powers
and such other Irreligious Debaucheries If he may why then they are matters that as directly and immediately relate to Religion as any Rites and Ceremonies of Worship whatsoever and for the Government of which they are as utterly to seek for any Precedent of our Saviour and his Apostles Nay more if this Argument were of any force it would equally deprive the Magistrate of any Power to compel his Subjects to obedience to any of the moral Precepts of the Gospel by secular Laws and Punishments because our Saviour and his Apostles never did it especially when all matters of Morality do as really belong to our spiritual concerns as any thing that relates immediately to Divine Worship and Affairs of meer Religion and therefore if the Civil Magistrate may not compel his Subjects to a right way of Worship with the Civil Sword because this is of a spiritual concernment as is pretended upon the same ground neither may he make use of the same force to compel men to Duties of Morality because they also equally relate to their spiritual Interests Besides the Magistrates Authority in both is founded upon the same Principle viz. The absolute necessity of their due Management in order to the Peace and Preservation of the Common-wealth We derive not therefore his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from any grant of our Saviours but from an antecedent right wherewith all Sovereign Power was indued before ever he was born into the world forasmuch as the same Providence that intrusted Princes with the Government of Humane Affairs must of necessity have vested them in at least as much Power as was absolutely necessary to the nature and ends of Government § 15. But further yet all the ways our Saviour has appointed in the Gospel for the advancement and propagation of Religion were prescribed to Subjects not to Governours and this indeed is certain that no private person can have any power to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel for if he had he would upon that very account cease to be a Private person and be vested with a Civil Power But that no Magistrate may do this will remain to be proved till they can produce some express prohibition of our Saviour to restrain him and till that be done 't is but a strange rate of arguing when they would prove that Magistrates may not use any coercive Power to promote the Interests of Religion because this is forbidden to their Subjects especially when 't is to be considered that Christ and his Apostles acted themselves in the capacity of Subjects to the Common-wealth they lived in and so could neither use themselves nor impart to others any coercive Power for the advancement and propagation of their Doctrine but were confined to such prudent and peaceable Methods as were lawful for persons in their condition to make use of i. e. humble Intreaties and Perswasions Our Saviour never took any part of the Civil Power upon himself and upon that score could not make penal and coercive Laws the power of Coertion being so certainly inseparable from the Supreme Civil Power But though he back'd not his Commandments with temporal punishments because his Kingdom was not of this world yet he enforced them with the threatnings of Eternity which carry with them more compulsion upon mens Consciences than any Civil Sanctions can For the only reason why Punishments are annex'd to Laws is because they are strong Motives to Obedience and therefore when our Savour tied his Laws upon mankind under Eternal Penalties he used as much force to drive us to obedience as if he had abetted them with temporal Inflictions So that the only reason why he bound not the Precepts of the Gospel upon our Consciences by any secular Compulsories was not because Compulsion was an improper way to put his Laws in execution for then he had never established them with more enforcing sanctions but only because himself was not invested with any secular Power and so could not use those methods of Government that are proper to its Jurisdiction § 16. And therefore the Power wherewith Christ intrusted the Governours of his Church in the Apostolical Age was purely spiritual they had no Authority to inflict temporal Punishments or to force men to submit to their Canons Laws and Penalties they only declared the Laws of God and denounced the threatnings annexed to them having no Coercive Power to inflict the Judgments they declared and leaving the event of their Censures to the Divine Jurisdiction Though alas all this was too weak to attain the ends of Discipline viz. to reclaim the offending Person and by example of his Censure to awe others into Obedience and could have but little influence upon the most stubborn and notorious Offenders For to what purpose should they drive one from the Communion of the Church that has already renounced it To what purpose should they deny him the Instruments and Ministries of Religion that cares not for them To what purpose should they turn him out of their Society that has already prevented them by forsaking it How should offenders be reclaim'd by being condemn'd to what they chuse How should they be scared by threatnings that they neither fear nor believe And if they will turn Apostates how can they be awed back into their Faith by being told they are so And therefore because of the weakness of this spiritual Government to attain the ends of Discipline and because that the Governours of the Church being subject to those of the Common-wealth they were not capable of any coercive Power 't is wonderfully remarkable how God himself was pleased to supply their want of Civil Jurisdiction by his own immediate Providence and in a miraculous manner to inflict the Judgments they denounced that if their Censures could not affright refractory Offenders into Obedience his Dreadful execution of them might For 't is notoriously evident from the best Records of the Primitive and Apostolical Ages that the Divine Providence was pleased to abet the Censures of the Church by immediate and Miraculous inflictions from Heaven In those times torments and diseases of the Body were the usual consequents of Excommunication and this was as effectual to awe men into subjection to the Ecclesiastical Government as if it had been endued with coercive Iurisdiction For this consists only in a power of inflicting temporal punishments and therefore when the Anathema's of the Church were attended with such Inflictions Criminals must have as much reason to dread the Rod of the Apostles as the Sword of the Civil Magistrate in that it carried with it a power of inflicting temporal Penalties either of Death as on Ananias and Sapphira or of Diseases as on Elymas the Sorcerer And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith St. Paul so often threatens to lash the factious Corinthians into a more quiet and peaceable temper Thus 1 Cor. 4. 21. What will ye shall I come unto you with a
Common-wealths they could not want Prudence to Judge what Circumstances were conducive to Order and Decency in Publick Worship And if we take a Survey of all the Forms of Divine Service practised in the Christian Church there is not any of them can so much as pretend to be appointed in the Word of God but depend on the Authority of the Civil Power in the same manner as all Customs and Laws of Civil Government do And therefore to quarrel with those Forms of Publick Worship that are established by Authority only because they are Humane Institutions is at once notorious Schism and Rebellion For where a Religion is Establish'd by the Laws whoever openly refuses Obedience plainly rebels against the Government Rebellion being properly nothing else but an open denial of Obedience to the Civil Power Nor can Men of this Principle live Peaceably in any Church in Christendom in that there is not a Church in the World that has not peculiar Rites and Customs and Laws of Government and Discipline § 7. But of this I shall have occasion to account elsewhere and shall rather chuse to observe here from what I have discoursed of the Use and Nature of Outward Worship the Prodigious Impertinency of that clamour some men have for so many years kept up against the Institution of Significant Ceremonies when 't is the only Use of Ceremonies as well as all other outward Expressions of Religion to be significant In that all Worship is only an Outward Sign of Inward Honour and is indifferently perform'd either by Words or Actions for respect may as well be signified by Deeds and Postures and Visible Solemnities as by Solemn Expressions Thus to approach the Divine Majesty with such Gestures as are wont to betoken Reverence and Humility is as proper a Piece of Worship as to Celebrate his Greatness by Solemn Praises And to offer Sacrifices and Oblations was among the Ancients the same sort of Worship as to return Thanksgivings they being both equally outward Signs of Inward Love and Gratitude And therefore there can be no more Exception against the Signification of Ceremonies than of Words seeing this is the proper Office of both in the Worship of God And as all Forms and Ceremonies and Outward Actions of External Worship are in a manner equally Significant so are they equally Arbitrary only some happen to be more Universally Practised and others to be Confined to some particular Times and Places Kneeling lying Prostrate being Bare-headed Lifting up the Hands or Eyes are not more naturally Significant of Worship and Adoration than putting off the Shoes bowing the Head or bending the Body and if some are more generally used than others that proceeds not from their Natural Significancy but from Custom and Casual Prescriptions and to Bow the Body when we mention the Name of Iesus is as much a natural signification of Honour to his Person as Kneeling or being Bare-headed or lifting up the Hands or Eyes when we offer up our Prayers to him But if all Outward Actions become to betoken Honour by Institution then whatsoever Outward Signs are appointed by the Common-wealth unless they are Customary Marks of Contempt and so carry in them some Antecedent Vndecency are proper Signs of Worship for if Actions are made Significant by Agreement those are most so whose signification is ratified by Publick Consent § 8. So that all the Magistrates Power of instituting Significant Ceremonies amounts to no more than a Power of Determining what shall or shall not be Visible Signs of Honour and this certainly can be no more Usurpation upon the Consciences of men than if the Sovereign Authority should take upon it self as some Princes have done to define the Signification of Words For as Words do not naturally denote those things which they are used to represent but have their Import Stampt upon them by consent and Institution and and may if Men would agree to it among themselves be made Marks of Things quite contrary to what they now signifie So the same Gestures and Actions are indifferently capable of signifying either Honour or Contumely and therefore that they may have a certain and setled meaning 't is necessary their Signification should be Determined and unless this be done either by some Positive Command or Publick Consent or some other way there can be no such thing as Publick Worship in the World in that its proper End and Usefulness is to express Mens Agreement in giving Honour to the Divine Majesty and therefore unless the Signs by which this Honour is signified be Publick and Uniform 't is not Publick Worship because there is no Publick Signification of Honour So far is it from being unlawful for Governours to define Significant Ceremonies in Divine Worship that it is rather Necessary in that unless they were defined it would cease to be Publick Worship And when different men worship God by different Actions according to their different Fansies 't is not Publick but Private Worship in that they are not Publick but Private Signs of Honour So that Uniformity in the Outward Actions of Religious Worship is of the same Use as certainty in the Signification of Words because otherwise they were no Publick Expressions of Honour And therefore to sum up the whole Result of this Discourse If all Internal Actions of the Soul are beyond the Jurisdiction of Humane Power if by them the substance of Religious Worship be perform'd if all Outward Forms of Worship have no other Use than only to be Instruments to express Inward Religion and if the Signification of Actions be of the same Nature with that of Words then when the Civil Magistrate takes upon him to determine any particular Forms of Outward Worship 't is after all that hideous and ridiculous Noise that is raised against it of no worse Consequence than if he should go about to define the Signification of all Words used in the Worship of God CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of all Actions Intrinsecally Evil and their Exemption from the Authority of Humane Laws against Mr. Hobs with a full confutation of his whole Hypothesis of Government The Contents NO Magistrate can Command Actions Internally Evil. The Reason hereof is not because Men are in any thing free from the Supreme Authority in Earth but because they are subject to a Superiour in Heaven To take off all Obligations antecedent to Humane Laws is utterly to destroy all Government Mr. Hobs his Hypothesis concerning the Nature and Original of Government proposed It s Absurdity demonstrated from its Inconsistency with the Natural Constitution of Things The Principles of Government are to be Adapted not to an Imaginary but to the Real State of Nature This Hypothesis apparently denies either the Being of God or the Goodness and Wisdom of Providence It irrecoverably destroys the Safety of all Societies of Mankind in the World It leaves us in as miserable Condition under the State of Government as we were in his supposed Natural State of
Reasonings in so general terms as that they might be equally forcible upon the minds of all men of howsoever different Perswasions in all other matters And now I have no other Favour or Civility to request of the Reader than that he would suspend his Iudgment till he have seriously perused and weighed all parts of the following Treatise But if he shall pass Sentence upon any part before he has considered the whole he will in all probability put himself to the pains of raising those Objections I have already answered to his hand and perhaps the next thing he condemns may be his own Rashness CHAP. I. A more General Account of the Necessity of an Ecclesiastical Power or Sovereignty over Conscience in matters of Religion The Contents THe Competition between the Power of Princes and the Consciences of Subjects represented The mischiefs that unavoidably follow upon the Exemption of Conscience from the Iurisdiction of the Supreme Power The absolute necessity of its being subject in affairs of Religion to the Governours of the Common-wealth This proved at large because Religion has the strongest influence upon the Peace of Kingdoms and the Interests of Government Religion is so far from being exempted from the Restraints of Laws and Penalties that nothing more requires them 'T is more easie to govern mens Vices than their Consciences because all men are bold and confident in their Perswasions The remiss Government of Conscience has ever been the most fatal miscarriage in all Common-wealths Impunity of Offenders against Ecclesiastical Laws the worst sort of Toleration The Mischiefs that ensue upon the permitting men the Liberty of their Consciences are endless Fanaticism a boundless Folly Affairs of Religion as they must be subject to the Supreme Civil Power so to none other The Civil and Ecclesiastical Iurisdictions issue from the same Necessity of Nature and are founded upon the same Reason of things A brief account of the Original of Civil Power The Original of Ecclesiastical Power the same In the first Ages of the World the Kingly Power and Priestly Function were always vested in the same persons and why When they were separated in the Iewish State the Supremacy was annexed to the Civil Power And so continued until and after our Saviours Birth No need of his giving Princes any new Commission to exercise that power that was antecedently vested in them by so unquestionable a Right And therefore the Scripture rather supposes than asserts it The argument against penal Laws in Religion from the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles answered and confuted The Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction of Princes not derived from any grant of our Saviours but from the natural and antecedent Rights of all Sovereign Power Christ and his Apostles could not use any coercive Iurisdiction because they acted in the capacity of Subjects Their threatnings of Eternity carry in them as much compulsion upon Conscience as secular punishments The power of the Church purely spiritual In the first Ages of the Christian Church God supplied its want of Civil Iurisdiction by immediate and miraculous Inflictions from Heaven Diseases of the Body the usual consequences of Excommunication And this had the same effect as temporal Punishments All this largely proved out of the writings of St. Paul When the Emperors became Christian the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction was reannext to the Civil Power And so continued till the Vsurpation of the Bishops of Rome How since the Reformation the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes has been invaded by some pragmatical Divines Their Confidence has scared Princes out of their Natural Rights Of the clause of Exception annexed to the Jejunium Cecilianum How the Puritans used it to countenance all their unruly and seditious Practices A Conclusion drawn from all the Premisses for the absolute Necessity of the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes § 1. NOtwithstanding that Conscience is the best if not the only security of Government yet has Government never been controul'd or disturb'd so much by any thing as Conscience This has ever rival'd Princes in their Supremacy and pretends to as uncontroulable an Authority over all the Actions and Affairs of humane life as the most absolute and unlimited Power durst ever challenge Are Governours Gods Vicegerents so is this Have they a power of deciding all Controversies so has this Can they prescribe Rules of Virtue and Goodness to their Subjects so may this Can they punish all their Criminal Actions so can this And are they subject and accountable to God alone so is this that owns no superiour but the Lord of Consciences And of the two Conscience seems to be the greater Sovereign and to govern the larger Empire For whereas the Power of Princes is restrain'd to the outward actions of men this extends its Dominion to their inward thoughts Its throne is seated in their minds and it exercises all that Authority over their secret and hidden sentiments that Princes claim over their publick and visible practices And upon this account is it set up upon all occasions to grapple with the Scepters and Swords of Princes and countermand any Laws they think good to prescribe and whenever Subjects have a mind to controul or disobey their Decrees this is immediately prest and engaged to their Party and does not only dictate but vouches all their Remonstrances Do Subjects rebel against their Sovereign 't is Conscience that takes up Arms. Do they murder Kings 't is under the conduct of Conscience Do they separate from the Communion of the Church 't is Conscience that is the Schismatick Do they tye themselves by one Oath to contradict and evacuate another 't is Conscience that imposes it Every thing any man has a mind to is his Conscience and Murther Treason and Rebellion plead its Authority The Annals and Histories of all times and places are too sad a Witness that this great and sacred thing has ever been abused either through the Folly of some or Hypocrisie of others to patronize the most desperate Mischiefs and Villanies that were ever acted § 2. Here then we see is a Competition between the Prerogative of the Prince and that of Conscience i. e. every private mans own judgment and perswasion of things The judgment of the Magistrate inclines him to Command that of the Subject to Disobey and the Dictates of his Conscience countermand the Decrees of his Prince Now is there not likely to be untoward doings when two Supreme Powers thus clash and contradict each other For what power would be left to Princes if every private mans perswasion for that is his Conscience may give check to their Commands Most mens minds or Consciences are weak silly and ignorant things acted by fond and absurd principles and imposed upon by their vices and their passions so that were they entirely left to their own conduct in what mischiefs and confusions must they involve all Societies Let Authority command what it please they would do what they list And what is this but a state
that distinguish their Parties And this cannot but be a mighty endearment of their Prince to them when he neglects and discountenances his best Subjects only because they are the godly Party for so every Party is to it self to join himself to their profest and irreconcileable Enemies And they will be wonderfully forward to assist a Patron of Idolatry and Superstition or an Enemy to the power of godliness for these are the softest words that different Sects can afford one another And withal I might adde That they must needs be much in love with him when they have reason to believe that they lie perpetually under his displeasure and that he looks upon them as little better than Enemies So that if a Prince permit different Parties and interests of Religion in his Dominions however he carries himself towards them he shall have at least all Parties discontented but one for if himself be of any he displeases all but that if of none he displeases all And Zealous and Religious People of all sorts must needs be wonderfully in love with an Atheist and there is no remedy but he must at least be thought so if he be not of any distinct and visible profession CHAP. VI. Of things Indifferent and of the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Things undetermined by the Word of God The Contents THe Mystery of Puritanism lies in this Assertion That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is expresly commanded in the Word of God The Wildness Novelty and unreasonableness of this Principle It makes meer Obedience to lawful Authority sinful It takes away all possibility of Settlement in any Church or Nation It is the main pretense of all pious Villanies It cancels all Humane Laws and makes most of the Divine Laws useless and impracticable It obliges men to be seditious in all Churches in the World in that there is no Church that has not some Customs and Vsages peculiar to it self All that pretend this Principle do and must act contrary to it The exorbitancy of this Principle makes all yielding and condescension to the men that plead it unsafe and impolitick Wherein the perfection and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures consists Of the Vanity of their Distinction who tell us That the Civil Magistrate is to see the Laws of Christ executed but to make none of his own The dangerous consequents of their way of arguing who would prove That God ought to have determined all Circumstances of his own Worship 'T is scarce possible to determine all Circumstances of any outward action they are so many and so various The Magistrate has no way to make men of this perswasion comply with his will but by forbidding what he would have done The Puritans upbraided with Mr. Hooker's Book of Ecclesiastical Politie and challeng'd to answer it Their Out-cries against Popery Will-worship Superstition adding to the Law of God c. retorted upon themselves The main Objection against the Magistrates power in Religion proposed viz. That 't is possible that he may impose things sinful and superstitious This Objection lies as strongly against all manner of Government Our inquiry is after the best way of settling things not that possibly might be but that really is Though Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction may be abused yet 't is then less mischievous than Liberty of Conscience The Reason of the necessity of subjection to the worst of Governours because Tyranny is less mischievous than Rebellion or Anarchy The Author of the Book entituled Vindiciae contra Tyrannos confuted That it may and often does so happen that 't is necessary to punish men for such perswasions into which they have innocently abused themselves Actions are punishable by Humane Laws not for their sinfulness but for their ill Consequence to the Publick This applied to the Case of a well-meaning Conscience Sect. 1. ALL things as well Sacred as Civil that are not already determined as to their Morality i. e. that are not made necessary Duties by being commanded or sinful Actions by being forbidden either by the Law of Nature or positive Law of God may be lawfully determined either way by the Supreme Authority and the Conscience of every subject is tied to yield Obedience to all such Determinations This Assertion I lay down to oppose the first and the last and the great Pretence of Non-conformity and wherein as one observeth the very Mystery of Puritanism consisteth viz. That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is authorized by some Precept or Example in the Word of God that is the complete and adequate Rule of Worship and therefore Christian Magistrates are only to see that executed that Christ has appointed in Religion but to bring in nothing of their own they are tied up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor manner So that whatever they injoin in Divine Worship if it be not expresly warranted by a Divine Command how innocent soever it may be in it self it presently upon that account loses not only its Liberty but its Lawfulness it being as requisite to Christian practice that things indifferent should still be kept indifferent as things necessary be held necessary This very Principle is the only Fountain and Foundation of all Puritanism from which it was at first derived and into which it is at last resolved A pretence so strangely wild and humorsom that it is to me an equal wonder either that they should be so absurd as seriously to believe it or if they do not that they should be so impudent as thus long and thus confidently to pretend it when it has not the least shadow of Foundation either from Reason or from Scripture and was scarce ever so much as thought of till some men having made an unreasonable Separation from the Church of England were forced to justifie themselves by as unreasonable Pretences For what can be more incredible than that things that were before lawful and innocent should become sinful upon no other score than their being commanded i. e. that meer obedience to lawful Authority should make innocent actions criminal For the matter of the Law is supposed of it self indifferent and therefore if obedience to the Law be unlawful it can be so for no other reason than because 't is Obedience So that if Christian Liberty be so awkard a thing as these men make it 't is nothing else but Christian Rebellion 't is a Duty that binds men to disobedience and forbids things under that formality because Authority commands them Now what a reproach to the Gospel is this that it should be made the only Plea for Sedition What a scandal to Religion that tenderness of Conscience should be made the only Principle of Disobedience and that nothing should so much incline men to be refractory to Authority as their being conscientious What a perverse folly is it to imagine That nothing but opposition to Government can secure our liberty And
of scruple that renounce Communion with the Church of England must do the same with all Churches in the World in that there is not any one Church in Christendom whose Laws and Customs are not apparently liable either to the same or as great exceptions Now Magistrates must needs be obligd to deal wonderful gently with such tender Consciences as these that are acted by such nice and unhappy Principles as must force them to be troublesom and unpeaceable in any Common-wealth in the World Nay what is more notorious than all this these men have all along in pursuit of this Principle run directly counter to their own practices and perswasions For not to puzzle them to discover in which of the Gospels is injoyn'd the form of Publick Penance in the Kirk of Scotland or to find out the Stool of Repentance either among the works of Bezaleel or the Furniture of the Temple We read indeed of Beesoms and Flesh-forks and Pots and Shovels and Candlesticks but not one syllable of Joynt-stools Let them tell me What Precept or Example they have in the Holy Scriptures for singing Psalms in Meeter Where has our Saviour or his Apostles enjoyn'd a Directory for publick Worship And that which themselves imposed What Divine Authority can it challenge beside that of an Ordinance of Lords and Commons What Precept in the Word of God can they produce for the significant Form of swearing by laying their hand upon the Bible which yet they never scrupled What Scripture Command have they for the three significant Ceremonies of the solemn League and Covenant viz. That the whole Congregation should take it 1. Uncovered 2. Standing 3. with their right hand lift up bare Now What a prodigious piece of impudence was this that when they had not only written so many Books with so much vehemence against three innocent Ceremonies of the Church only because they were significant but had also involved the Nation in a civil War in a great measure for their removal and had arm'd themselves and their Party against their Sovereign with this Holy League of Rebellion that even then they should impose three others so grosly and so apparently liable to all their own Objections What clearer evidence can we possibly have That it is not Conscience but humour and peevishness that dictates their scruples And What instance have we in any Nation of the World of any Schism and Faction so unreasonably begun and continued The Rebellion of Corah indeed may resemble but nothing can equal it And from hence we may discover how vain a thing it is to make Proposals and Condescensions to such unreasonable men when 't is so impossible to satisfie all their demands and suppose we should yield and deliver up to their zeal those harmless Ceremonies they have so long worried with so much fury and impatience it would only cherish them in their restless and ungovernable perswasions For whilst their peevish tempers are acted by this exorbitant Principle the Affairs of Religion can never be so setled as to take away all occasions and pretences of Quarrel in that there never can be any Circumstances of Religious Worship against which this Principle may not as rationally be urged and 't is impossible to perform Religious Worship without some Circumstance or other and if all men make not use of it against all particulars 't is because they are humoursom as well as seditious and so allow one thing upon the same Principle they disavow another For certainly otherwise it were impossible that any men should when they pray refuse to wear a Surplice and yet when they swear which is but another sort of Divine Worship never scruple to kiss the Gospel So that whoever seriously imbibes this perswasion and upon that account withdraws himself from the Communion of the Church he understands not the consequences of his Opinion if it does not lead him down to the lowest folly of Quakerism which after divers gradual exorbitances of other less extravagant Sects was but the last and utmost improvement of this Principle And therefore whilst men are possess'd with such a restless and untoward perswasion What can be more apparently vain than to talk of Accommodations or to hope for any possibility of quiet and setlement till Authority shall see it necessary as it will first or last to scourge them into better manners and wiser opinions So that we see the weight of the Controversie lies not so much in the particular matters in debate as in the Principles upon which 't is managed and for this very reason though we are not so fond as to believe the Constitutions of the Church unalterable yet we deem it apparently absurd to forego any of her establish'd Ceremonies out of compliance with these mens unreasonable demands which as it would be coarsly impolitick upon divers other accounts so mainly by yielding up her Laws and by consequence submitting her Authority to such Principles as must be eternal and invincible hindrances of Peace and Setlement This let them consider whom it most concerns § 5. Fourthly As for their Principle of the perfection and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures 't is undeniably certain as to the fundamental Truths and substantial Duties of Christian Religion but when this Rule that is suited only to things necessary is as confidently applied to things accessory it lays in the minds of men impregnable Principles of Folly and Superstition For confounding them in their different apprehensions between the substantial Duties and external Circumstances of Religion and making them of equal value and necessity it makes the doing or not doing of a thing necessary to procure the Divine acceptance which God himself has not made so and places a Religion in things that are not religious and possesseth the minds of men with false and groundless fears of God wherein consisteth the very Essence and Formality of Superstition Whereas were they duly instructed in the great difference between things absolutely necessary and things meerly decent and circumstantial this would not only preserve them in the right Notions of good and evil but also keep up the Purity of Religion Decency of Worship and due Reverence of Authority And therefore when these men would punctually tye up the Magistrate to add nothing to the Worship of God but what is enjoyn'd in the Word of God if their meaning be of new Articles of Belief 't is notoriously impertinent because to this no Civil Magistrate pretends But if their meaning be that the Magistrate has no Authority to determine the particular circumstances of Religion that are left undetermined by the Divine Law 't is then indeed to the purpose but as notoriously false in that we are certainly bound to obey him in all things lawful and every thing is so that is not made unlawful by some prohibition for things become evil not upon the score of their being not commanded but upon that of their being forbidden and what the Scripture forbids not it
any Precept in the Word of God that neither has nor indeed can determine all particular Modes and Circumstances of Worship they are so various and so changeable And men may with as much reason search the holy Records for the Methods of Legal Proceedings in our Common Law Courts as for particular Rubricks and Prescriptions of all outward Forms and Circumstances of Publick Worship So that what these men demand is so unreasonable that considering the nature of things 't is impossible Sect. 8. And this may suffice to demonstrate the unparallel'd follies and mischiefs of this Principle Which being all I intend at present I suppose it needless to engage in any further Scholastick Disputes about the nature of indifferent Actions and some other less material Controversies that depend upon this partly because this Principle on which alone they stand being removed they become utterly groundless and so by its Confutation are sufficiently confuted and partly because all this has been so often so fully and so infinitely performed already And of all the Controversies that have ever been started in the world it will be hard to find any that have been more fairly pursued and satisfactorily decided than this of the Church of England against its Puritan Adversaries that has all along been nothing else but a Dispute between Rational Learning and Unreasonable Zeal And it has been no less an unhappiness than it was a Condescension in the Defenders of our Church that they have been forced to waste their time and their parts in baffling the idle Cavils of a few hot-headed and Brain-sick People And there is scarce a greater Instance of the unreasonableness of Mankind than these mens Folly in persisting so obstinately in their old and pitiful Clamours after they have been so convincingly answered and so demonstratively confuted And indeed how is it possible to satisfie such unreasonable men when their greatest Exception against the Constitutions of the Church has ever been no other than That they were the Churches Constitutions Insomuch that if Authority should think good out of compliance with their cross Demands to command what they now think necessary that must then according to their Principles become unlawful because forsooth where they take away the liberty of an Action they destroy its lawfulness Now what possibly could have betrayed men into so absurd a Perswasion but a stubborn Resolution to be refractory to all Authority and to be subject to nothing but their own insolent Humours And as long as they lie under the power of this Perswasion that they are obliged in Conscience to act contrary to whatever their Superiours command them in the Worship of God the Magistrate has no other way left to decoy them into Obedience but by forbidding what he would have them do and commanding what he would have them forbear and then if he will accept to be obeyed by disobedience he shall find them good men the most obedient Subjects in the world Sect. 9. But to return to what I was saying instead of troubling my self with any further Confutation of so baffled a Cause I shall rather chuse to do it more briefly and yet perhaps more effectually by uybraiding them with their shameful Overthrows and daring them but to look those Enemies in the face that have so lamentably cowed them by so many absolute Triumphs and Victories And not to mention divers other Learned and Excellent Persons I shall only single out that famous Champion of our Church Mr. Hooker upon him let them try their Courage though by so safe a Challenge I do but give proof of my own Cowardise How long has his incomparable Book of Ecclesiastical Polity bid shameful defiance to the whole Party and yet never found any so hardy as to venture upon an Encounter Now this Author being confessedly a Person of so much Learning Candour Judgment and Ingenuity and withal so highly prized and insisted upon by the regular and obedient Sons of the Church that they have in a manner cast the issue of the whole Cause upon his performance What is the Reason he was never vouchsafed so much as the attempt of a just Reply 'T is apparent enough both by their Writings and their Actions that they have not wanted Zeal and therefore that he has escaped so long free from all contradiction 't is not for want of good will but ability not because they would not but because they were convinced they could not confute him So that the Book it self is as full and demonstrative a Confutation of their Cause as the matters contained in it i. e. 't is Unanswerable and I know nothing can do it more effectually unless perhaps a Reply to it and shall live an eternal shame and reproach to their Cause when that is dead and would probably have been buried in utter forgetfulness were it not for this Trophy of success against them And therefore until they can at least pretend to have returned some satisfactory Answer to that Discourse they prove nothing but their own impudence whilst they continually pelt us with their Pamphlets and such little Exceptions that have been so long since so shamefully and demonstratively baffled Sect. 10. And whereas they are wont in order to the making their Principles look more plausibly to stuff their Discourses with frequent and tragical Declamations against Popery Will-worship Superstition c. I cannot perswade my self 't is worth the labour to wipe off such idle reproaches by solemnly discoursing these matters both because this has been so frequently and fully performed already and because though these outcries have been made use of to affright silly People yet few if any of their Ring-leaders are still so fond either to own this Charge against us or to plead it in their own Justification Only I cannot but observe of all these and the like Pretences that we need not any stronger Arguments against themselves than their own Objections against us For if in this Case there be any Superstition 't is they that are guilty of it For this Vice consists not so much in the nature of things as in the apprehensions of men when their minds are possessed with weak and unworthy conceits of God Now he that conforms to the received Customs and Ceremonies of a Church does it not so much upon the account of any intrinsick value of the things themselves as out of a sense of the necessity of Order and of the Duty of Obedience whereas he that scrupulously refuses to Use and Practise them takes a wrong estimate of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness and imagines that God judges his Creatures by nice and pettish Laws and lays a greater stress upon a doubtful or indifferent Ceremony than upon the great Duty of Obedience and the peace and tranquillity of the Church So that the Principles upon which we proceed are no other than That as the Divine Law has prescribed the Substantial Duties of Religion so it has left its Modes and Circumstances
excuse or justifie them in their Separation This thing has no relation to the Divine Service and therefore however it may restrain men from something else 't is no motive to drive them from that Now what can be more apparent than that these men are resolved to comply with and encourage the people in a wicked and rebellious Schism for so it must be if it be groundless and unwarrantable by herding them into Conventicles for their own private ends and that in spight of Authority Whereas had they any true sense of Conscience and ingenuity they would labor to dispossess the people of their mistakes and to reconcile them to a fair and candid opinion of the Church when she requires nothing of them but what they themselves are convinced in Conscience is lawful and innocent For if they valued the Peace of the Church the Commands of Authority and the setlement of the Nation before their own selfish ends instead of keeping up Divisions as 't is evident they do by their Conventicles they would be as zealous as he that is most so to remove the grounds of Schism and Faction and to reunite their Party to the Church by perswading them to an orderly and peaceable Conformity Which if it be innocent as themselves believe it is it must in the present Circumstances of Affairs be necessary if it be any mans Duty to be peaceable in the Church and obedient to lawful Authority Sect. 6. Secondly How came the people to be scandalized by whom were they betrayed and affrighted into their mistakes Who buzzed their scruples and jealousies into their heads And Who taught them to call our Ceremonies Popish Superstitious and Antichristian What other inducement have they to dislike the Churches Constitutions but meerly the example of their Leaders Their practice is the only Foundation of the peoples opinion and when their flocks straggle from our Churches 't is only to follow their Pastors They first lead the people into an Errour and then this must be an Apology for themselves to follow them And thus whilst they dance in a Circle 't is no wonder if at the same time their Preachers follow their people and the people follow their Preachers And therefore if the Godly Ministers who dare not conform for fear of scandalizing the weak Brethren would but venture to do it the weak Brethren would cease to be scandalized So that these men first lay the stumbling-block in the peoples way and then because it scares silly and timorous Souls this serves for a pretence to startle be astonish'd at it themselves and withal to increase the childish fears of the multitude by their own seeming counterfeit horror Now with what a shameless Brow do these men prevaricate with publick Authority They have deceived the people into a publick Errour and then will not undeceive them for fear of their displeasure And when they have possess'd their minds with unworthy scruples and jealousies against the commands of their Superiors then must this weakness of the people be made the Formal Excuse of their own disobedience And by this Artifice they prostitute the Reverence of all Government to the fortuitous humor and peevishness of their own Disciples and so by making the publick Laws submit to the pleasure of those whom they govern they put it in their own power to enact or repeal them as they please and no Law shall have any force to bind the Subject without their approbation Because 't is in their own power when they please to work prejudices in the people against it and therefore if their being offended be sufficient to take off their obligation 't is or 't is not a Law only as themselves shall think good And thus they first govern the Common people then sooth and flatter their pride by inveigling them into a conceit that they are govern'd by them and by this stratagem they govern all But however from whomsoever these good people learn'd their idle imaginary scruples the offence they have taken against the Customs and Prescriptions of the Church is either just and reasonable or it is not If the former then they have rational grounds for their dislike separation and if they have then these men that think themselves bound to comply with them even against the commands of Authority ought to plead those Reasons and not meerly Scandal to justifie their disobedience because they must carry in them an obligation antecedent to that of Scandal in that they are supposed sufficient to warrant and patronize it and therefore 't is not that but the grounds on which their dislike is founded that are to be pleaded in their defence and justification But if the latter then is their dislike groundless and unreasonable And if so 't is easie to determine that they ought rather to undeceive them by discovering their mistake than to encourage them in their sinful disobedience for so it must be if it be groundless by compliance with them And by this means they will fairly discharge themselves from all danger of any criminal offence For however scandal groundlesly taken and so it is always because there is never any reason to be offended at an indifferent thing may possibly lay a restraint upon my liberty till I have informed the person of his Error and disavowed those ill consequences he would draw from my example and when I have so done I have prevented the danger of Scandal which always supposes errour weakness or mistake of Conscience and therefore when the Errour is discovered and the weakness removed so is the scandal too And if he shall still pretend to be scandalized 't is not because he is weak but peevish and if after this I comply with them and that against the commands of my lawful Superiors I shall disobey Authority only because my Neighbour is unreasonable i. e. for no reason at all And this further discovers how shamelesly these men shuffle and prevaricate with the world in that when most of them have declared in their private Discourses that they are not so fond as to imagine our Ceremonies unlawful or Antichristian and when their Grandees and Representatives have profess'd to publick Authority in Solemn Conferences that they scruple not these things upon their own account but only for fear of giving offence to some well-meaning people that were unhappily possess'd with some odd and groundless jealousies against them For if so Then why are not these good people that follow them better informed Why do they not instruct them in the truth and disabuse them out of their false and absurd conceits Why do they connive at their pride and presumption Or at least Why do they not more smartly reprove them for their rashness to censure the actions of their Neighbours to condemn and revile the Wisdom of their Superiors and to scorn the Knowledge of their Spiritual Instructors Why do they not chide them out of their malepart peevish and impatient confidence and by
convincing them at least of the possibility of their being deceived reduce them to a more humble and governable temper Why do they not teach them in plain terms that the establish'd way of Worship is lawful and innocent and therefore that they ought not to forsake it to the disturbance of the Church and contempt of Authority If they would but make it part of their business to undeceive the people how easily would all their stragling Followers return into the Communion of the Church But they dare not let them know their Errours lest they should forfeit both their Party and their Reputation And therefore instead of that they rather confirm them in their mistakes and in their own defence are forced to perswade them that they ought to be scandalized Insomuch that it is not unusual to hear the foolish people pretend it concerning themselves and to tell you that your action is a Scandal to them By which they mean either that it leads them into sin or that it makes them angry If the former that is a ridiculous contradiction for if they know how the snare and temptation is laid then they know how to escape it my action does not force them into the sin but only invites them to it through their own mistake and folly And therefore if they have discovered by what mistake they are likely to be betray'd they know how to provide against the danger For if they know their duty in the case how can they plead Scandal when that supposes ignorance And however I behave my self they know what they have to do themselves If they do not How can they say of themselves that they are scandalized when by so saying they confess they are not For that implies a knowledge how to do their duty and avoid the danger If the latter i. e. that they are angry then all their meaning is that I must part with my liberty and disobey my Superiors to please them that their saucy humour must give me Law that I must be their Slave because they are proud and insolent and that they must gain a power over me because they are forward to censure mine actions § 7. Thirdly We encounter Scandal with Scandal and let the guilt of all be discharged upon that side that occasions the most and the greatest offences Now all the mischief they can pretend to ensue in the present constitution of affairs upon their compliance with Authority reaches no farther than the weak Brethren of their own Party whereas by their refractory disobedience they give offence not only to them but to all both to the Jew and to the Gentile and to the Church of God And not to insist upon the advantages they give to Atheism and Popery let me only mind them that if the accidental offence of the Judgments of some well-meaning but less knowing Christians of a private capacity pass a sufficient obligation upon Conscience to restrain it from any practice in it self lawful of how much more force must that scandal be that is given to publick Authority by denying obedience to its lawful commands and by consequence infringing its just power in things not forbidden by any divine Law Now if the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England were in themselves apparently evil then their repugnancy to the Law of God were sufficient Objection both against their practice and their imposition and their scandal to weak and ignorant Christians were of small force in comparison to their intrinsick and unalterable unlawfulness But because this is not pretended in our present case What a shameful scandal and reproach to Religion is it to neglect the necessary duty of Obedience and subjection to lawful Authority under pretence of complyance with the weak and groundless scruples of some private men 'T is certainly past dispute that the reasonable offence of some weaker Brethren cannot so strongly oblige our Consciences as the indispensable command of obeying our lawful Superiors And it is a shame to demand Whether the Judgment of a lawful Magistrate have not more force and power over Conscience than the Judgment of every private Christian If not then may the Laws of Authority be cancell'd and controul'd by the folly and ignorance of those that are subject to them for meer scandal arises only from the folly and ignorance of the persons offended For if there be any just and wise occasion of dislike the action becomes primarily unlawful not because 't is scandalous but because 't is antecedently evil whereas meer and proper scandal is only concern'd in things in themselves indifferent So that in this case all the difficulty is Whether is the greater scandal to do an indifferent thing when a private Christian dislikes it or not to do it when publick Authority enjoyns it And certainly it can be no Controversie Whether it be a fouler reproach to Religion to disobey a Christian Magistrate in a thing lawful and indifferent than to offend a private Christian. And I may safely appeal to the Judgment of all wise and sober men Whether the intolerable waywardness of some nice and squeamish Consciences to the commands of just Authority be not a fouler and more notorious scandal to Religion than a modest and humble compliance with them though in things not so apparently useful and necessary And then as for their own weak Brethren of whom they seem so exceedingly tender they can no way more scandalize them than by complying with them By which they are tempted and betray'd into the greatest and most mischievous enormities for thereby they encourage their folly feed and cherish their ungrounded fancies confirm them in a false opinion of the unlawfulness of their Superiors commands and so lead them directly into the sins of unwarrantable Schism and Disobedience How many feeble and deluded Souls are enticed by the reputation of their example to violate the commands of Authority and that when themselves are not convinced of their unlawfulness and so entangle themselves in a complicated sin by disobeying their lawful Superiors and that with a doubtful and unsatisfied Conscience They cannot be ignorant that the greatest part of their zealous Disciples are offended at the Laws and Constitutions of the Church for no other reason than because they see their godly Ministers to slight them and therefore unless their example be sufficient to rescind the lawful Commands of their Governors they give them the most criminal Scandal by inviting them to the most criminal disobedience So that all circumstances fairly considered the avoiding of offences will prove the most effectual inducement to Conformity For this would take away the very Grounds and Foundations of Scandal remove all our differences prevent much trouble and more sin cure all our Schisms Quarrels and Divisions banish our mutual Jealousies Censures and Animosities and establish the Nation in a firm and lasting Peace In brief the only cause of all our troubles and disturbances is the inflexible perversness of about an hundred
proud ignorant and seditious Preachers against whom if the severity of the Laws were particularly levelled How easie would it be in some competent time to reduce the people to a quiet and peaceable temper and to make all our present Schisms that may otherwise prove eternal expire with or before the present Age The want or neglect of which method is the only thing that has given them so much strength so long a continuance § 8. Fourthly No man is bound to take notice of or give place to old and inveterate scandals but rather ought in defence of his Christian liberty to oppose them with a publick defiance and to shame those that pretend them out of their confidence For the only ground of compliance and condescension in these Cases is tenderness and compassion to some mens infirmities and as long as I have reason to think this the only cause of their being scandalized so long am I bound by charity and good nature to condescend to their weaknesses and no longer For after they have had a competent time and means of better information I have reason enough to presume that 't is not ignorance that is the gound of their taking offence but pride or peevishness or something worse So that all that is to be done in this case is to disabuse the weak by rectifying his judgment removing his scruples declaring the innocence of my action clearing it of all sinister suspicions and protesting against all those abuses he would put upon the lawful use of my Christian liberty And when I have so done I have cleared my self from all his ill-natured jealousies and surmises and discharged all the offices and obligations of Charity And if after all this my offended Neighbor shall still persevere in his perverse mis-interpretation of my actions and pretend that they still gaul and ensnare his tender Conscience the man is peevish and refractory and only makes use of this precarious pretence to justifie his uncharitable censures of my innocent liberty and then am I so far from being under any obligation to comply with the peevishness and insolence of his humour that I am strongly bound to thwart and oppose it For otherwise I should but betray my Christian liberty to the Tyranny of his wilful and imperious ignorance and give superstitious folly the advantage and Authority of Prescription For if that prevail in the practice of the World and I must yield and condescend to it because 't is stubborn and obstinate it must in process of time gain the reputation of being the custom and received opinion of the Church and when it can plead that then it becomes necessary Inveterate Errours are ever sacred and venerable and what prescription warrants it always imposes Custom ever did and ever will rule and preside in the practices of men because 't is popular and being ever attended with a numerous train of Followers it grows proud and confident and is not ashamed to upbraid free reason with singularity and Innovation So that all I could gain by an absolute resignation of my own liberty to another mans folly would be only to give him a plausible pretence to claim a right of command and dominion over me and to make my self subject to his humour by my own civility And thus though the Jews were in the beginning of Christianity for a time permitted the Rites and Customs of their Nation yet afterward when the Nature of the Christian Religion was or might be better understood the Church did not think it owed them so much civility And if the Primitive Christians had not given check to their stubborn perswasions they had given them Authority and by too long a compliance would have vouched and abetted their Errours and adopted Judaism into Christianity and Circumcision not only might but of necessity must have been conveyed down to us from age to age by as firm and uninterrupted a Tradition as Baptism And this shews us how way-ward and unreasonable those men are who still persevere to object Scandal against the Churches Constitutions after she has so often protested against this Exception by so many solemn Declarations When at first it was pretended it might perhaps for a while excuse or alleviate their disobedience but after Authority has so sufficiently satisfied their scruples and removed their suspicions and so amply cleared the innocence of its own intentions if men will still continue jealous and quarrelsom they may thank themselves if they smart for their own presumption and folly And Princes have no reason to abridge themselves in the exercise of their lawful Power only because some of their Subjects will not learn to be modest and ingenuous And if his Majesty should think good to condescend so far to these mens peevishness as to reverse his Laws against them out of compliance with them this would but feed and cherish their insolence and only encourage them to proceed if that be possible to more unreasonable demands for upon the same reason they insist upon these they may when they are granted them go on to make new remonstrances i. e. upon no reason at all And beside this would but give the countenance of Authority to their scruples and superstitious pretences and leave the Church of England under all those Calumnies to Posterity with which themselves or their followers labour to charge it and oblige future Ages to admire and celebrate these peevish and seditious persons as the Founders of a more godly and thorow Reformation Not to mention how much Princes have ever gain'd by their concessions to the demands of Fanatick Zealots they may easily embolden but hardly satisfie them and if they yield up but one Jewel of their Imperial Diadem to their importunity 't is not usual for them to rest till they have gain'd Crown and all and perhaps the head that wears it too for there is no end of the madness of unreasonable men How happy would the world be if wise men were but wise enough to be instructed by the Mistress of Fools But every Age lives as much at all adventure as if it were the first without any regard to the warnings and experiences of all former Ages Sect. 9. Fifthly The Commands of Authority and the Obligations of Obedience infinitely outweigh and utterly evacuate all the pretences of scandal For the matters wherein scandal is concern'd are only things indifferent but nothing that is not antecedently sinful remains so after the commands of lawful Authority are superinduced upon it these change things indifferent as to their Nature into necessary Duties as to their Vse and therefore place them beyond the reach of the obligations of scandal that may in many cases extend to the restraint of our Liberty but never to the prejudice and hinderance of our Duty so that no Obedience how offensive soever unless it be upon some other account faulty is capable of being made Criminal upon the score of scandal the obligations whereof are but accidental
easily may they fire these heady people into tumults and outrages How eagerly will they flow into their Party in spight of all the Power and Opposition of their Governours And how prodigally will they empty their Bags and bring in even their Bodkins and Thimbles and Spoons to carry on the Cause He is a very silly man and understands nothing of the Follies Passions and Inclinations of Humane Nature who fees not that there is no Creature so ungovernable as a Wealthy Fanatick And therefore let not men flatter themselves with idle hopes of Settlement any other way than by suppressing all these dissentions and reducing the minds of men to an Agreement and Vnity in Religious Worship For it is just as impossible to keep different Factions of Religion quiet and peaceable as it is to make the common people wise men and Philosophers If indeed we could suppose them sober and discreet it were then no great danger to leave them to their Liberty but upon the same supposition we may as well let them loose from all the Laws of Government and Policy because if every private man had wit honesty enough to govern himself and his own Actions there would be no need of Publick Laws and Governours And yet upon this impossible Presumption stand all the Pretenses for Liberty of Conscience That if men were permitted it they would use it wisely and peaceably than which 't is hard to suppose a greater Impossibility For the Conscience of the multitude is the same thing with their Wisdom and Discretion and therefore 't is as natural for them to fall into the snare of an abused and vicious Conscience as 't is to be rash foolish For an erroneous Conscience is but one sort of Folly that relates to the Iudgment of their moral Actions in which they are as ignorant and as likely to mistake as in any other Affairs of Humane Life There is no Observation in the world establish'd upon a more certain and universal Experience than that the generality of mankind are not so obnoxious to any sort of Follies and Vices as to wild and unreasonable conceits of Religion and that when their heads are possess'd with them there are no principles so pregnant with mischief and disturbance as they And if Princes would but consider how liable mankind are to abuse themselves with serious and conscientious Villanies they would quickly see it to be absolutely necessary to the Peace and Happiness of their Kingdoms that there be set up a more severe Government over mens Consciences and Religious perswasions than over their Vices and Immoralities For of all Villains the well-meaning Zealot is the most dangerous Such men have no checks of Conscience nor fears of miscarriage to damp their Industry but their Godliness makes them bold and furious and however their Attempts succeed they are sure of the Rewards of Saints and Martyrs And what so glorious as to lose their lives in the Cause of God These men are ever prepared for any mischief if they have but a few active and crafty Knaves to manage and set them on and there is never want of such in any Common-wealth And there needs no other motive to engage their Zeal in any Seditious Attempt than to instil into their minds the Necessity of a thorow Reformation and then you may carry them wheresoever you please and they will never boggle at any Mischief Out-rage or Rebellion to advance the Cause And therefore it concerns the Civil Magistrate to beware of this sort of People above all others as a party that is always ready formed for any Publick Disturbance One would think the world were not now to be taught that there is nothing so difficult to be managed as Godly Zeal or to be appeased as Religious Dissentions People ever did and ever will pursue such Quarrels with their utmost rage and fury and therefore let us be content to govern the world as it ever has been and ever must be govern'd and not be so fond as to trouble our heads with contriving ways of Settling a Nation whilst 't is unsettled by Religion Agreement in this is the first if not the only foundation of Peace and therefore let that be first established upon firm and lasting Principles which it easily may by severe Laws faithfully executed but otherwise never can But till it is done 't is just as wise and safe for a Prince to enrich his Subjects with Trade and Commerce as 't is to load weak and unfinished Foundations with great and weighty Superstructures to conclude all Arguments are to be considered in their proper place and order and 't is but an unskilful and inartificial way of discoursing to argue from less weighty and considerable matters against the first and Fundamental reasons of things and yet of this preposterous Method are those men guilty who talk of the Interests of Trade in opposition to the Interests of Government And therefore for a fuller Answer to this and all other the like pretenses I shall now refer the Reader to my Book where I think I have proved enough to satisfie any man of an ordinary understanding That Indulgence and Toleration is the most absolute sort of Anarchy and that Princes may with less hazard give Liberty to mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences As for my Method 't is plain and familiar and suited to every man's Capacity I have reduced the state of the Controversie to a few easie and obvious Propositions under these I have couch'd all the particular matters concern'd in our present Debates and by Analogy to their Reasonableness have cleared off all Difficulties and Objections and have been careful all along to prove the absolute Necessity of what I assert from the most important ends and designs of Government compared with the Natural Passions and Inclinations of Mankind And whoever offers to talk of these Affairs without special regard both to the Nature of Government and to the Nature of Man may amuse himself with the fine Dreams and Hypotheses of a warm brain but shall be certain to miss the necessary Rules of Life and the most useful measures of practicable Policy that are suited only to the Humours and Passions of men and designed only to prevent their Follies and bridle their Enormities And therefore the main Notion I have pursued has been to make out how dangerous a thing Liberty of Conscience is considering the Tempers and Tendencies of Humane Nature to the most necessary ends and designs of Government A vein of which Reasoning I have been careful to run through all parts and Branches of my Discourse it being vastly the most considerable if not the only thing to be attended to in this Enquiry And as I have kept close to my main Question so have I cautiously avoided all other collateral and unnecessary Disputes and have not confined my self to any Hypothesis nor determined any Controversie in which it was not immediately concern'd but have expressed my