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A83437	The casting down of the last and strongest hold of Satan. Or, A treatise against toleration and pretended liberty of conscience: wherein by Scripture, sound reason, fathers, schoolmen, casuists, Protestant divines of all nations, confessions of faith of the Reformed Churches, ecclesiastical histories, and constant practice of the most pious and wisest emperours, princes, states, the best writers of politicks, the experience of all ages; yea, by divers principles, testimonies and proceedings of sectaries themselves, as Donatists, Anabaptists, Brownists, Independents, the unlawfulnesse and mischeif [sic] in Christian commonwealths and kingdoms both of a vniversal toleration of all religions and consciences, and of a limited and bounded of some sects only, are clearly proved and demonstrated, with all the materiall grounds and reasons brought for such tolerations fully answered. / By Thomas Edvvards, Minister of the Gospel. The first part.; Casting down of the last and strongest hold of Satan. Part 1	Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647.	1647 (1647)	Wing E225; Thomason E394_6; ESTC R201621	211,214	231

cases too hard and difficult for them are commanded to goe higher to some superior Court and Assembly as those words cleerly show thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse This place afterwards was Jerusalem as t is said Psal 122. 5. there were set thrones of judgement and in Ierusalem did Iehoshaphat set of the Levites and of the Priests and the chiefe of the Fathers of Israel for the judgement of the Lord and for Controversies 2 Chron. 19. 8. 9. 10. Ainsworth upon the place writes that by the Iudge that shall be in those dayes is understood the high Councell and Senate of Iudges which were of the cheif of the Fathers of Israel as they who are called Priests verse 9. are called verse 12. Priest so many Iudges are called Iudge only as among the Priests one was cheife so among the Iudges one was Prince 2 Chron. 19. 11. The Hebrew records say when any doubt a●ose in any case to any one of Israel hee asked of the judgement H●ll that was in his Citie if they knew they told it him if not then hee that enquired together with the Synedrion or with the messengers thereof went up to Jerusalem and inquired of the Synedrion that was in the Mountaine of the Temple if they knew they told it them if not then they all come to the Synedrion that was at the door of the Court yard of the Temple if the● knew they told it them and if not they all came to the chamber of hewen stone to the great Synedrion and enquired and Interpreters generally understand these verses of Iudicatures and Courts in Israel and of the lower Courts going to the highest the great and high Synedrion Now I find no command no● example recorded in Scripture of any of the Iewish Courts Ecclesiast or Civil enquiring by Vrim of morall transgressions of what sort they were and what punishments the Committers of such sins should have but still they determined according to the Law and Iudgements Ezek. 44. 24. I never read of the high Synedrion either in Scripture or any other writers of it that they were wont to give their Answer by Vrim and Thummim If we observe those instances in Scripture of enquiring by Vrim wee shall see they are inquiries made of particular persons by the Priest not by a Court and of the high Priest not as sitting in Court nor as alwayes at Ierusalem nor of Criminall cases but of going in and out to warre and such like and whoever doth but consult with the Annotations of Ainsworth Diodate and Luther English Divines the Commentaries of Lyra Piscator and others on this place will confesse t is quite another thing is here spoken of then the judgement of Vrim 3. Amesius in his Cases of Conscience in his Answer to that question whether that Law Deut. 17. 12. of putting him to death who would not hearken to the Iudge and the Priest was just resolves it was and faith the equity of that Law will easily appeare and among other reasons gives this because that place speaks of disobedience in those things which out of the Law of God are cleerly and manifestly determined verse 11. so that wee see Ames judgement in the resolution of that case is that the Answer of the Iudge or Priest was made out of the Law of God and not by Vrim and it seems that learned men never dreamt of any such thing in this Deut. 17. for among all his reasons he mentions no such thing and certainly if that were the meaning of the place which Hagiomastix puts upon it that had been such a strong reason for the equity of putting those to death who would not hearken to the Priest giving them councell immediately and infallibly from God as that Dr. Ames could not have omitted it For if Mr. Goodwin who is so kind and charitable to all Atheists Antiscripturists Blasphemers Idolaters c in his Queries upon the printed Paper entituled an Ordinance against Heresies and his Hagiomastix as that he would have no coercive power made use of against them doth yet grant there was an equity in that Law that sentence of death should passe on such that would not hearken to the Priest speaking immediately and infallibly from God and saith that for his part if the Inquisitors now can give any satisfying account of any sentence awarded against Blasphemers Hereticks that comes by infallible Revelation from God hee shall thinke it equall and meet that hee that shall doe presumptuously and not hearken unto it should be put to death then Dr. Ames who was fully for the Magistrates coercive power in matters of Religion and for putting Blasphemous Hereticks to death could not have forgotten this reason Fourthly on Deut. 17. 8 9 10 11 12. is founded by the judgement of many great Divines that which is called the Councell the great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem the Seventy Spanhemius in his third part Dubiorum Evangelicorum page 800. 801. showes that by the command of the Law this very place Deut. 17. 8 9. to this supreame Tribunall of the Synedrion were referred all things whatsoever that could not be determined of the inferior Courts or were doubtfull and had tried the severall judgements of the inferior judges Gersom Bucerus in his Dissertat de Gubernat Ecclesiae page 62. quotes this Deut. 17. 8. 9. for the generall Convention at Ierusalem to which the hardest things were brought which could not be determined in the lower judicatories Walaeus in his Tractate de Discrimine muneris politici Ecclesiastici brings this place to prove the Synedrion or Colledge at Ierusalem that if among the Iudges or Priests in the lesser Cities and Townes there fell out some things of greater moment or if any one would not rest in their sentence the cause was devolved to higher Iudges who after Davids time had their Synedrion at Ierusalem as the cheife Metrapolis of Iud●● Mr Gillespie in his Aarons rod blossoming 1. Book 3. chapt write● thus T is agreed upon both by Iewish and Christian Expositors that this place holds forth a supream civill Court of Iudges and the Authority of the civill Sanhedrim is mainly grounded on this very text And as the high civil Synedria is founded here so many Divines show a supream Ecclesiast Sanhedrim distinct from the Civill is held forth in this very place to which the People of God weere bound as to the supream Ecclesiasticall Court to bring all the difficult Ecclesiasticall causes which could not be determined in the lower Assemblies in which Court they were determined without any other appeale of which the Reader may find more in Walaeus Gerson Bucerus Apollonii jus Magistratus circa sacra first part page 374. and second part second chapter page 48. and aboue all others in Mr. Gillespie his Aarons Rod blossoming Book 1. chapt 3. who at large handles this point that the Iewes had an

to performe the Covenant Fourthly he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to the Covenant and made all that were present in Israel to serve even to serve the Lord their God 2 Chron. 34. 32 33. that is all that were under his jurisdiction he kept them in such awe by his regall authority and penall lawes as they durst not but stand to the Covenant 10. THESIS As de facto 't is evident in the examples related besides divers others recorded in Scripture that good Magistrates did alwayes meddle for God and his truth against false worship and seducers so that they did it de jure and ought to do so is as clear from the approbations speciall testimonies promises rewards and blessings given by God of them made to them and bestowed by God on them for so doing There 's hardly any place mentioning what the Patriarchs Judges Kings Magistrates did in this kind but there 's some commendation some blessing some speciall testimony from God for so doing recorded in those places 2 Chron. 14. 2 3 4. Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God For he took away the Altars of the strange gods and the high places c. So 't is said of Jehosophat Hezekiah Josiah they did that which was right in the fight of the Lord are highly commended have many blessings upon themselves and their Kingdoms and all for commanding by their Princely power their subjects to good and removing all false worship and the means of it God will not hide from Abraham the thing that he was doing concerning Sodom and the reason is given because he will command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord. Iacob took away the strange Gods from his houshold and all that were with him and God manifests his approbation of it the terror of God was upon the Cities round about Iacob and they did not pursue after the sonnes of Iacob yea God gives such testimony to Princes and Magistrates suppressing false Prophets and false worships that he hath rewarded with temporall blessings wicked Kings for so doing as is evident in Iehu who for destroying Baal out of Israel though he departed not from the finnes of Ieroboam yet his children of the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel 2 Kings 10. 28 29 30. 11. THESIS Those Magistrates Judges and Princes even the dear servants of God who being in place of authority and power that out of carnall respects to wives children and other interests have suffered and tolerated Idolatry and other evils though they in their owne persons never practised much lesse commanded any such things nay disswaded from them and not used their power to restraine and hinder them have been both sharply reproved and severely punished by God for it King Solomon having power to hinder his wives from Idolatry and not doing it but suffering them God is provoked to bring wrath upon him and his family 1 King 11. 4 5 6 7 8 9. 10 11 12. to rend the Kingdome from him to stirr up an adversary unto Solomon Hadad the Edomite T is the opinion of many good Divines and that upon the first of Kings ch 11. and in answer to the Arminians upon that Article of falling from Grace that Solomon did not bring or admit Idols into the house of God neither did he command the people that either they should forsake the true worship of God or worship Idols neither can it be proved that he did in his owne person worship Idols This is only certaine that being bewitched by his Idolatrous wives he suffered them to build Altars and high places or at most commanded them to be built and this the word in the Hebrew vers 11. with thee not of thee implies as much for as much as this is done with thee implying done in his Kingdom and neer Ierusalem though not by Solomon himselfe Eli being a Judge because when his sonnes made themselves vile ht restrained them not redressed not their corruptions and abuses about the Sacrifices though he reproved and disswaded them from their wayes by many strong arguments therefore God brought fearfull ruine upon him and his house cutting off his arme and the arme of his fathers house c. as in 1 Sam. 2 3 4. chap. 't is laid down at large 12. THESIS Whereas the Patrons of Toleration except against the instances of the Judges Magistrates and Kings of Iudah and Israel as no sufficient proof for Magistrates power in suppressing falshood and commanding men to receive the truth because they were typicall Kings types of Christ as King of his Church and the Land of Canaan a typicall Land which no other Magistrates or Land beside ever were or are I desire that it may be remembred that other Magistrates Judges and Princes who were before the common wealth of Israel was erected and the judiciall lawes given and of other Common-wealths and Kingdoms did take away and punish Idolatry Blasphemy and command men under their power to worship God and some such examples are not only barely related in the Scripture but approved of Abraham Jacob and Job were before the time of Moses and Aaron before the judiciall Lawes or the Leviticall Priesthood for the Government and worship of the Jewish Church and Common-wealth were given For Abraham and Jacob that 's evident by the Book of Genesis and for Job that he lived in the time between Abraham and Moses is the judgement of many good Divines and Interpreters upon Job and that upon severall reasons given by them of which the Reader may read more in Bucolcerus Pineda Junius and Tremellius Mercerus Master Carylls Expositions on Job and divers others Now of Abraham and Iacobs commanding their children servants and all that were with them to keep the way of the Lord I have spoken of in the tenth Thesis And that in Iobs time and that out of the Land of Canam in the Land of Vz no typicall Land Idolatry and false worship were to be punished by the Magistrates is apparent by Iob 31 26 27 28. where Iob speaks of himselfe If I beheld the Sun when it shined or the Moon walking in brightnesse And my heart hath been secretly intised or my mouth hath kissed my band This also were an iniquity to be punished by the Iudge for I should have denied the God that is above the meaning of which place according to the judgement of the best Interpreters Mercer Merlinus Iunius Pineda and others is that Idolatry and worshiping the creatures as Sun Moon and the Heavens a worship much in use in the East where Iob lived was an iniquity worthy to be taken notice of and punished by the Judges so Mercer reads it digna est it deserves and ought to be punished by the Judges and then observe the reason for I should have denied the Lord that is above So that all false

very uncertain doubtfull other things absurd and untrue As first that to be a Type of Christ is a sufficient ground of a Politicall Civill power over the Church and that typicalnesse qua typicalnesse gives those perso●s a power who otherwise have none the contrary unto which is in severall Reasons proved by Doctor Stewart in the second part of his Duply to M. S. page 22. and never yet answered by M. S. or any other though M. S. and many of his Brethren have written upon that argument since Secondly that he who was Head of the State was Head also of the Church in a typicall way whereas many great Divines are of another judgement and show that the Kings of Judah and the civill judicatures were formally distinct from the Ecclesiasticall and that he who was cheif in the State over civill matters was not cheif Iudge and Officer in the Church in an Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall notion of which point Master R●●herford and Master Gil●espie having written so fully lately I shall spare to speak any thing and referre the Reader to their learned Books enti●uled The Divine Right of Church Government Aarons Rod Blossoming Thirdly that the people of the Iewes were interchangably a Church and a Nation so that whoever was a member of the Church was a member of the Common-wealth and vice versa of which see the Book entituled The Antient Bounds or Liberty of Conscience seated page 60. Now Master Gillespie in his Aarons Rod blossoming Book 1. chap. 2. proves strongly that the Iewish Church was formally distinct from the Iewish State and that in seven particulars as in respect of distinct Lawes distinct Acts distinct Officers so in respect of distinct Members there being Members of the Church among them who had the name of Proselyti Iustitiae and were initiated into the Iewish Religion by Circumcision Sacrifice c. that neverthelesse were restrained and secluded from Dignities Government and Preferment in the Iewish Common-wealth and from divers matriages which were free to the Israelites Master SELDEN also in that learned Book of his De Jure Natur. Gentium lib. 2. cap. 4. lib. 5. cap. 20. speaks as much of those Proselytes Proselytus justitiae utcunque novato patriae nomine Iudaeu● diceretur non tam quidem ci● is Iudaicus simpliciter censendus esset quam peregrinus sempe● cui jura quamplurima inter cives Secondly how do they prove that Iehu Ioash Manasseh Asa Hezekiah Iebosophat Iosiah were Types of Christ and did execu●e typically the kingly office of Christ in his Church were Kings in an Ecclesiasticall notion an extraordinary way not ruling only for the Church but in the Church and over it as they say Moses Ioshua David Solomon were in their persons places and actions expresse types of Iesus Christ as 't is evident in the New Testament Pen-men also of Scripture besides Prophets as well as Magistrates and so were extraordinary men that every thing they did in Religion is not a binding example to Magistrates now as many Reformed Divines have showen against the Arminians and Erastians but that Asa Iosiah Hezekiah Iehosaphat were is gratis dictum not yet proved neither were these Pen-men of holy Scripture or Prophets extraordinarily inspired but these foure great Reformers as Kings were stirred up enquiring after and directed by Prophets as the Reader may finde clearly in the stories of them in the Chronicles and Kings Besides I finde not among Divines who have written of the Types of Christ or who grant Moses David Solomon to be expresse Types that they make Asa Iosiah c. to be Types Again of Types of Christ as Divines distinguish there are particular persons types of him as Adam Noah Isaac Joseph Moses Joshua Samson David Solomon Jonah and there are such rancks and orders of men as the First-born Kings Prophets c. Now though all of the first sort are speciall particular Types of him so that the speciall things done by them do typifie and set forth Christ in many particulars of his person actions and sufferings yet the rancks and orders of men as the First-born Kings Prophets may not be typicall in all the particular persons of those ranks and orders at least to the particular acts they do in those ranks and orders but 't is enough for many in those orders to agree in common as in being Kings and Prophets as Christ was there being some in all those orders and ranks appointed of God especially and peculiarly to be the Types which others are not and for whose sakes in those orders and ranks such orders of men were instituted by God to be Types of which many instances might be given with the Reasons thereof in some of the First-born Kings c. but I shall reserve the further handling of that to a second part upon this Subject Lastly supposing Asa Josiah and those godly Kings to be Types of Christ may it not be doubted whether Jehu Ieboash Ammon Ieroboam c. were Types of Christ and did execute his kingly office who yet were commended viz. the two fir●t for destroying false worship and reproved for not doing it constantly besides could those Kings of Israel and Iudah who yet were lawfull Kings that apostatised from all the whole worship of God the Ceremoniall Law that ordained the Types that destroyed Gods service and the Priesthood made Priests of the lowest of the people be Types of Christ and I desire to be resolved or M. S. the Author of the Antient bounds of Liberty of Conscience stated whether any wicked men were speciall Types of Christ and whether all persons who were Types of Christ were not saved Thirdly suppose these Kings of Iudah were Types of Christ in setting on the Thron of David and ruling over Iudah in Christ the King of his Church coming out of their loines yet they were temporall Kings had Civill authority Now how does it appear that what they did in punishing idolatrous Priests comm●nding their subjects to the true worship of God they did only as Types by vertue of that Notion and not as they were temporall Kings which must be proved before their examples can be made null and I am sure the Scripture no where faith that the Kings of Iudah and Israel in what they commanded in matters of Religion they did as Types of Christ and not as Civill Magistrates 'T is one thing to be a Type and another thing to doe such things meerly qua Types and what if Christian Magistrates leaning upon this broken staffe suffering all Herefies Blasphemies and Idolatries in their Kingdomes Christ at the last day when they stand before the judgement feat they objecting for themselves the Kings of Israel and Iudah were Types of Christ and all they did was by vertue of their typicall notion shal tell them no but as Magistrates entrusted by God with a power and authority how will they be then confounded will this distinction and notion

committed to private persons equally as to Kings for their particular personall observation and therefore sure in this solemne injunction there 's something new and more required of Kings then was of them before or is of persons meerly private Secondly this was not done till just hee was placed in the throne so saith the text verse 18. The Law was committed to the King as a King at his Coronation which showes it had not reference to the Kings private conversation as a meer man but to his Princely function as a Magistrate which stood in commanding others not in guiding himselfe For no man is a King in respect of himselfe but in ruling his Subjects So Augustin saith of Kings As a man hee serveth God one way as a King another way As a man by faithfull living as a King in setting forth Lawes to command that which is good and remove the contrary So that Kings as Kings serve God in doing that for his service which none but Kings can doe This is also proved from 2 Kings 11. 12. compared with 2 Chron. 23. 11. where to King Jehoash in his solemne inauguration as soon as the Crown is put upon him the Book of the Testimony was given him from the high Priest that hee might know the care and publick custody of the Law was committed to him in his being made a King and in that the command of God with the practise accordingly together with putting the Crown on the head was to give the Law in the Kings hand it showes it was to command it to others and make others keep it And that this was the meaning of it in Jehoash and so in other Princes it may further appeare in that the people at that time being much corrupted in Religion and Jehoaida the high priest desiring much their Reformation and the Restauration of Religion as a meanes to effect it made a covenant between the Lord and the people and as the medium and meanes that that people should bee the Lords people hee brings in the King between them that hee should interpose with his authority to make them the Lords people verse 17. And Iehoiada made a Covenant between the Lord and the King and the people that they should bee the Lords people that hee should set up and maintain the true worship of God and bee for God to bring in the people Thirdly the ends expressed in Deut. 17. Of the Kings prolonging his dayes in his Kingdome hee and his children in the midst of Israel of his not turning aside from the commandement to the right or to the left of his learning to fear the Lord God and keeping all the words of the Law show 't is understood of a publike officiall keeping the Law for the Kings of Israel and Judah could not prolong their dayes in their Kingdomes nor their children enjoy good dayes after them if they suffered Idolatry Apostasie c. in their land though themselves practised it not as may bee seen in Solomon and the stories of the Kings of Israel and Judah neither could they keep all the commands of God there being many commands given to the Iewish Magistrates as is confessed but pleaded to bee Iudiciall and peculiar to them to see their people serve God only and to punish Idolaters and false Prophets Fourthly the practise of the good Kings among the Iewes not only keeping the Law themselves but causing others also as Josiah Hezekiah Asae c. and that from this Text and such like showes it was meant of a publick keeping the Law the diligent execution of their office serves for an evident exposition what God required at their hands And as I have proved that of Deut. 17. speaks of a keeping the Law ex officio as a publick custos so for the taking of another evasion brought by Mr. Goodwin in his Hagiomastix page 132. I desire the Reader to observe that God having given power and authority to the Magistrate to see the first Table kept the duties commanded to bee performed by all under his jurisdiction and to bee guarded against all disobedience and contempt from men it must bee understood in the use of such meanes and wayes God hath allowed the Magistrate as distinct from private persons or ministers viz. such as are proper to him and which God hath given him by virtue of his place to use Now those meanes qua Magistrate are in the exercise of his coercive power by Lawes and Edicts and by the use of the temporall sword given him of God to restrain and hinder such evills and to promote and further such good So Melancton when as the Magistrate is the keeper of the Lawes hee himselfe obeys them and compells others to obey them and defends strongly their authority Therefore he is armed of God with the sword The Minister hee restraines and punishes only with the word of God with preaching and excommunication without bodily force But the Magistrate being armed with the sword punishes those who are con●umaicous with punishments of the body Triglandus showes how Ministers Fathers of families Magistrates and all people are commanded to keep the Law and are keepers of the Law and then layes down the difference between all these in keeping the Law The Minister hee teaches whole Assemblies the true rule of holinesse admonishes and exhorts al to subject to the command of Christ and by the power of the keyes casts out from the communion of the faithfull impenitent and refractorie persons The father of a family teaches in his family the exercise of true piety goes before them in example and by his authority restrains his that they shall not turne out of the good way Now he who is Magistrate doth not teach but as a beleever out of the Law of love as other beleevers doe and as a Father of a Family his owne household But as a Magistrate with his coercive power he commands and forces all within his Territories that they shall not outwardly offend against the true Religion and worship of God And so all our Divines who have written of the differences between Civill and Ecclesiasticall power as 〈◊〉 Z●●chiu● Amesi●● Apollo●●● 〈◊〉 do show the lawfulnesse of the Magistrates using outward force by p●nall Lawes and bodily punishments towards those persons and things whereof God hath given them power I will quote one passage out of Amesi●● Between the Magistrates and the Ministers of the Church there is this difference T is the duty of Magistrates by Civil means and coercive power to procure the common good as well spirituall as bodily of all those committed to their jurisdiction 1. Tim. 2. 2. but of Ministere by Ecclesiasticall means to procure the spirituall good of those committed to them And another out of Bilson Ministers may teach but not command perswasion is their part compulsion is the Princes By all which it appeares the Magistrate having power in matters of Religion as the

Malefactors for offences against the second Table should not bee in force now and whatever is said by Hagiomastix in this reason against all bodily and civill punishment for transgressions of the first Table holds in all respects as strongly against the Magistrates punishing for killing stealing c and the Anabaptists Socinians and other Hereticks who wholly deny the Christian Magistrates sword or at least the use of it in point of death under the N. Testament against any transgression viz. Treason Murder adulterie c as well as Blasphemie Idolatrie may say the same for themselves and among all other Arguments brought by them against the Christian Magistrates killing or punishing Murder Theft Adulterie c they may adde this new one of Master Goodwins There is this cleere Reason why the old Testament Law for punishing of Murtherers Theeves Adulterers c should not now be in force upon any such terms as it was when and where it was given because in all difficult cases that happened about matters of the Second Table the Jewes to whom this Law was given had the opportunitie of immediate consultation with the mouth of God himselfe who could and did from time to time infallibly declare what his owne mind and pleasure was in them So that except those that were to give sentence in cases of bloud theft c had been desperately wicked and set upon bloud and had despised that glorious Ordinance of the Oracle amongst them they could not do injustice because God himselfe was alwayes at hand to declare unto them what was meet to be done and what kind of man-slayer was to be put to death and whether the person killed the man casually or wilfully c whereas now the best Oracles that Magistrates and Iudges have to direct them in doubtfull cases about matters of life estate c are men of very fallible judgements and the Lawes they are to proceede by of doubtfull Interpretation in many cases and therefore to goe about to prove that the Law for punishing Murtherers Theeves c is now or amongst us in force because it was once given unto the Jewes is as if men should prove that a man may safely and without danger walk among ●ogs Praecipices and ditches at midnight because he may well doe it at noon day I will undertake to make it good against Master Goodwin that whatsover he saith in this his cleere Reason for the Magistrates punishing in matters of Religion under the old Testament but against it now to show it was the same in matters of Iustice and Right among men then and is as strong against Magistrates coercive Power now in those things as in matters of Religion yea upon that head of difficult and doubtfull cases and danger of Magistrates erring and mistaking in judgement thereupon to give severall Reasons of the danger of Magistrates mistaking rather in difficult cases of the second then of the first Table Whoever hath but read and observed the Scriptures yea but the five Books of Moses must acknowledge there were many difficult and doubtfull cases under the old Law upon the commandements of the second Table as well as of the first and therefore superior and higher Courts divers one above another were appointed by God under the Law to which in hard matters concerning the second Table as of the first they might resort for advice and resolution Whoever doth but consider the many Questions and cases handled and written upon by the School-men Casui●ls Canonists Civilians upon matters of the second Table as well as of the first together with the errrors and diversitie of Opinions that have been in the Church from the Apostles dayes down to this time upon every one of the commandements of the second Table as about Magistracie Polygam●e Communitie of Wives and Communitie of Goods about Christians being Magistrates the Lawfulnesse of Christians going to war about the Lawfulnesse of Lying dissimulation and aequivocation in divers cases c must confesse there are many Controversies and doubts about the Contents of the second Table That place in Deuteronomy 17. from the eigth verse to the twelfth brought by Master Goodwin for the judgement of Vrim in difficult cases about matters of Religion and so made the ground of Magistrates punishing for Religion then but not now speaks as well of hard matters in civill things betweene man and man as in the things of God There are some Divines who understand the Place wholly or Principally of hard matters and Controversies about the second Table so Luther upon the place laboring to free it from the corrupt Interpretation and sense put upon it by the Papists saith Moses doth here deale not concerning● the word or Doctrine or as they speake of the questions of faith which they would have referd to the Pope but of the sentence of Publick and Prophane Crimes So A●●sworth and our English Divines on the Place by blood and blood understand Murder of which the Iudges may be doubtfull and unable to find out whether it were wilfull which deserved death or unwilling for which exile into the Cities of Refuge was appointede by Plea and Plea pleading for and against in the same cause some accusing some denying as in 1 Kings 3. 16. 17. 18. by stroake and stroake may be also meant stroaks and Wounds that one man gave unto another whether of Malignitie or Casualtie and Hagiomastix in Section 107. in Answer to the Vindication of the Ordinance against Heresies which brought Deut. 17. 12. for a proofe of God making controverted points in Religion a matter of death or imprisonment carries his first and second Answers so as if that place were understood wholly or Principally of Controversies about the second Table between blood and blood between stroake and stroake Plea and Plea and if he meant not so those Answers are nothing to the Position of the Vindicator affirming that God in the old Testament gave Authority to make a controverted point in Religion for of Religion he speaks a matter of death or imprisonment But all Divines generally who write upon the place by way of exposition or who have written of the Judicatories among the Jewes and of Appeales from lower Courts to higher and of the distinction between Civill and Ecclesiasticall Courts do understand the hard matters in judgment and the matters of Controversie within the gates to bee meant of criminall matters in Civill things belonging to the second Table as sixth and eight Commandement as well as of Ecclesiasticall things the matter too hard between blood and blood between Plea and Plea is interpreted by learned J●nius in his Analysis upon Deuterononie of shughter and killing and of contention in Civill causes about such things as belong to the accommodations of life as between stroak and stroak is of diseases as of the plague of Leprofie which was in an Ecclesiasticall and ceremoniall way according to the Law to be distinguished and therefore in this place the argument

of that knowne axiome A particulari ad universale non valet consequentia and therefore though that particular reason be ceased although I haue fully shown that never was any reason of those Laws under the old Testament for punishing of false Prophets but a meer device and a fancie t is no good consequence all the other reasons yea and the commands themselves should cease also Seventhly to that Hagiomastix saith that the punishments enjoyned by God then under the Law to be inflicted in his Church upon delinquents were more bodily and afflictive to the outward man then the punishments enjoyned under the Gospel and consequently were not only carnall or bodily but typicall also and prefignificative of those greater and more spirituall under the Gospel cutting off from his people then as of casting out from his people now cutting off under the Gospel being no where found to be used but in a metaphorical and allusive sense also to what Minus Celsus Senensis writes that that corporall punishment in Deut. 13. was a Type of eternall damnation and therefore that Law with all the rest given for the future signification of things by the comming of Christ ceased I answer as followes First I deny the punishments enjoyned by God under the Law to be inflicted in his Church upon delinquents to be bodily or afflictive at all to the outward man as by donfiscation of goods or by death but they were spirituall and inflicted upon the soules by suspension excommunication and such like spirituall censures as well as now under the Gospel T is true there were bodily outward punishments in the Civill Iudicatories inflicted then on the bodies of false Prophets Idolaters c but by the Magistrates the Civil Governors and not by the Priests the Ecclesiastical Governors in the Church of the Iewes For under the Law the Jewish Church and Common-wealth the Civil Government and Ecclesiastical the censures and punishments of Church and State were formally distinct as Master Gillespie hath fully and excellently proved in his Aarons rod blossoming in many places particularly 1. Book cap. 2. 3 4 5 and the Church of the Iewes proceeded then against false Prophets only with the sword of the Spirit and spirituall weapons and the State with the materiall Sword and bodily punishments Which truth is fully acknowledged also by Master Cotton however differing from Presbyterians about a National Church in his Answer to Master Williams Bloudy Tenet saying I should think mine eye not only obscured but the fight of it utterly put out if I should conceave as he doth that the National Church State of the Jewes did necessarily call for such weapons a speaking of a Sword of Iron or Steel to punish Hereticks more then the Congregetional State of particular Churches doth call for the same now in the dayes of the new Testament For was not the National Church of the Iewes as compleatly furnished with spirituall Armor to defend it selfe and to offend men and Divels as the particular Churches of the new Testament be Had they not power to convince false Prophets as Eliah did the Prophets of Baal Had they not power to seperate all evil doers from the fellowship of the Congregation what power have our particular Churches now which their National Church wanted or what efficacie is there found in the exercise of our power which was wanting to them It is therefore a Sophistical imagination of mans Braine to make a mans selfe or the world believe that the National Church State of the Iewes required a Civil Sword whereas the particular State of the Gospel needs no such helpe And was not the National Church of Israel as powerfully able by the same spirit to doe the same surely it was both spoken and meant of the National Church of the Jewes not by might nor by Power but my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Zach. 4. 6. So that by what I have already said Hagiomastix must either I suppose recall what he hath written of carnal bodily punishments enjoyned by God then to be inflicted in his Church upon delinquents or else must joyne with the Erastians in holding the Iewish Church and Common-wealth their Governement and Censures all one and the same Secondly The foundation upon which Hagiomastix rears this building of outward punishments under the old Testament being typical of spiritual under the new viz the Land of Canaan with the external happinesse and peace there being typical and therefore reasons a compara●is and from the Analogie is sandie and unsound for the Land of Canaan with the external happinesse and long life in it whatsoever it was typical of was from what God had put into the Land being a Land healthful pleasant flowing with milke and honey abounding in excellent precious fruits the immediate blessings of God upon it and not from what came to it by the Magistrates Laws and their good Government for further satisfaction of which I wish Master Goodwin to resolve me this question whether the Land of Canaan were not typical as well in times of wars and troubles and under bad Princes as in dayes of peace and under good Princes and so to reason a comparatis to use his owne Phrase and adidem if temporall threatnings and bodily punishments inflicted upon delinquents under the old Testament were typicall and Praesignificative of greater under the Gospel they must be threatnings and bodily punishments inflicted from God upon false Prophets c not thoe executed by the Magistrates on them Thirdly Granting both Hagiomastixs foundation and the building reared upon it to be good yet they no whit prove bodily and outward punishments to be wholly taken away under the new Testament for suppose the temporal happinesse and the temporal punishments had typified more spiritual happinesse and lesse of the earth more spiritual judgements and lesse of outward or bodily sufferings under the Gospel yet it followes not they take away all outward happinesse and blessings and all outward bodily punishments there may be greater or lesser degrees of things under the old and new Testament suitable to some difference in the manner of Administration betweene the old and the new and yet not the substance of the things taken away These are knowne axioms Gradus non tollunt substantiam Magis Minus non variant speciem T is apparent by sense and experience that how much soever spirituall blessings and spiritual judgements in the dayes of the Gospel abound above the times under the Law yet they take not away all temporal outward blessings nor all temporal outward judgements but God for all that gives many outward blessings and sends many temporal judgements on the earth So supposing God should inflict more spiritual judgements on the soules of men under the new Testament and the Church greater spiritual censures then under the old it no way followes the Magistrates may inflict none at all especially when all spiritual judgements on the soule are slited and with a high hand

contemned Fourthly Whereas punishment by the Magistrate and cutting off by death under the old Testament in cases of Apostasie Blasphemie c is made a Ceremonie and type of excommunication under the new Testament cutting off of casting out and of eternal damnation I may truly Answer this is gratis dictum said but not proved and therefore might deny it without giving any reason and bid the Patrons of Toleration prove it but that the Civill Magistrates punishing delinquents under the old Testament was no Ceremonie nor Type I shall give these reasons 1. Ceremonies shadowes Typical things under the old Law were either of things past or things to come the remembrances of things already done or the Praesignifications of future things but Ceremonies and Types were not the signification of things present and existent Now excommunication and eternal damnation were at that time under the old Law when those commands of punishing with death the Apostate faise Prophet c were given and in use That excommunication and cutting off from the Church were in the Church of the Iewe● in the times of the good Kings and Magistrates punishing Idolaters c with the Civil sword let the Reader Consult Aarons Rod blossoming 1 Book 4. 5 6 7. chapt That there was Hell and eternall damnation under the old Law as well as the new both before those commands in Deut. 13. 17. were given and all along after many places of Scripture show as Isaiah 30. 33. 2 Pet. 4. Jude 5. 6 7 that mention Hell for the evil Angels Sodomites the unbeleeving Israelites that came out of Egypt and the wicked Kings of Israel and Judah and therefore that which Hagiomastix saith that cutting off from his People under the Law it exchanged for casting out from his people under the Gospel is very false for there was casting out from the Church as well then as now yea cutting off spoken of in the old Testament in many places means nothing else but casting out of the Church by excommunication for full proofe of which I referre the Reader to Aarens rod blossoming 1. Book cap. 5. pag. 55. 56 57 58 59 As also that passage is not true that the expression of cutting off where ever t is found in the Gospel is m●tephorical and allusive only for cutting off is used in the new Testament for cutting of by bodily death as in Gal. 5. 12. and else where the proof of which I referre to the 20. Thesis where I shall handle it fully Secondly The same things may be said with as much reason against bodily outward punishments for breaches of the second Table Adultery Murder Theft as against outward punishing for Apostasie c and if they hold not good against the second Table neither do they against the first Thirdly The Civil Magistrates punishing for moral transgressions is no Ceremonie nor Type acts of morall justice though they may sometimes be extraordinary yet they never were accounted Typical or Figurative but by such as would transforme all the Scriptures into an Allegory and Master Cotton answering such a like evasion in the Bloudy Tenet saith Did ever any Apostle or Evangelist make the judicial Laws of Moses concerning life and death ceremonial and Typical Time was when humane inventions in Gods worship were accounted superstition But now humane inventions in Doctrine may passe for currant Evangelical Divinity And in another place To make a judicial Law a figure without some light from some Scripture is to make a mans selfe wise above that which is written Fifthly the making these expresse commands of God concerning punishing Idolaters false Prophets Blasphemers types and figures of spiritual and eternal punishments of excommunication damnation c is by turning the Scriptures into an Allegory and forsaking their literal sense against the rules of interpretation given by the most Orthodox Divines as Augustine and others a making them utterly void and as opening a wide doore to all errors and foolish conceits that as often as men know not how to answer the Scriptures that crosse their Opinions and lusts and yet have a mind to keepe their Opinions they may still fly to this and say This Scripture is not to be taken litterally but mystically and Allegorically Beza in that judicious Tractate of his De Haereticis a Magistratu puniendis in Answer to Montfortius a grand Patron of Toleration in those times who in many places of his writings made use of this Invention that corporall punishment under the old Law as stoning was no figure of any bodily punishment to be now inflicted but of eternal to which we ought to leave Hereticks or else of that punishment which is inflicted not by a corporal sword but a spiritual the lively word of God writes thus For this was the speciall subtiltie of Sathan of old which yet not one almost of the ancient Fathers observed that when he could not cast the Scripture out of the Church wholly yet by vaine Allegories he made the whole Scripture unprofitable and fabuloùs so as truely there was not one peice of Scripture left free of being contaminated with these Allegories which very course also the Anabaptists and Libertines take at this day But this I would that they should at length show us out of what place of Scripture they have learned that invention and device of the shadowes and figures of the judiciall Lawes Per in Ceremonies and so in some Histories from the Authoritie of Scripture I acknowledge these things But of judicial Lawes or corporall Idolatrie which might shadow out spirituall I remember not that I have ever read any thing But for further satisfaction in this particular I refer the Reader to the Tractate of Beza page 156. 167. Sixthly supposing all Hagiomastix saith were true that those bodily punishments commanded by God under the old Law to be inflicted upon false Prophets Idolaters Seducers Blasphemers had been in some sense typical and Praesignificative of those greater and more spiritual under the Gospel yet it followes not that they are ceased now and may not be lawfully practised for they may remaine and be made use of though the other sense intended be fulfilled too there is a compound sense of some Places of Scripture litteral and historical figurative and spirituall as Weems in his Christian Synagogue second Book page 223. 224 225 226 227 228 showes in which cases when the spiritual is fulfilled eminently the literal is not abolished of which I might give many instances but shall onely name one viz. that of Deut. 25. 4. Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe which treadeth out the Corne. Now though the spiritual sense of that place be the not muzling the mouth of the Ministers who labour in the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 9. yet the litteral sense holds stil that a man should forbeare to muzzle the mouth of the Oxe which treadeth out the Cor●● or at least t is not unlawfull to forbeare besides by the

verses about false Prophets neither doe they give out signs or wonders to confirme their calling the parties instanced in the text being of daughters to Fathers Wifes to Husbands c were not likely so much as to pretend to them the name of Prophets speaking by inspiration of some deitie but rather drawing by their neernesse of relation intimatenesse of affection opportunities of private and constant converse which many phrases in those verses the wife of the bosome thy friend which is as thy owne soule entise thee secretly thou shalt not censent unto him neither shall thine eye pity and such like imply and yet these are commanded to be put to death as well as those Prophets who openly and bodily gave out signs and wonders to confirme their being Prophets of which the Reader may be further satisfied by reading Junius his Analytical explication on Deut. 13. And as Moses in that former part of the chapter showes plainly contrary to the affirmation of Hagiomastix and other Libertines that others who perswade men to the worship of a false god besides those who pretend themselves Prophets are to be killed so in the latter part of this chapter from v. 13. he layes downe how they are to be put to death also that are guilty of Apostasie that have suffered themselves to be drawn away from the true worship of God to other gods who are so far from comming under the notion of false Prophets endeavouring to perswade men to the worship of a false God and that by affirming they spake by the inspiration of some deitie as that they fal not under the Title of Seducers at all but the seduced and therefore Iunius writing upon this Deut. 13. analyzes the whole chap. concerning Apostasies into two First the Authors entising to Apostasie in the first 11. verses Secondly those who are guilty of Apostasie who suffer themselves to be withdrawn from the worship of God in the latter part of the chapter and he showes this is another part of the chap. in which Moses speaks not of those seducing false Prophets nor the clandestine Seducers but of those who yielded to their Seducements particularly of those who publickly to the view of all are Seduced and being in publick Order as a City rest in that Apostasie by the publick authoritie of men falling from God and openly defending that impietie So Deut. 17. from verse 2. to verse 8. sets downe a Law for putting to death those who are Idolaters and Apostates simply though they never went about to entice others Iunius upon this 17. c. observes that this Law differs from that in the 13 chapt the eleven first verses because there Moses speaks of Apostates who are Dogmatists and enticers to Apostasie but here of Idolaters simply In Deut. 17. from verse 8. to verse 13. there is a Law that in ecclesiastical cases in matters of Religion as well as Civil upon going from the lower Iudicatories to the supreme to the high Priest with the Colledge of Priests the man that would doe presumptuously and would not hearken unto the Priest even that man should die which was in other cases then Blasphemie Apostasie Prophecying falsly for it appears by the scope of that place and the stream of all interpreters that in too hard matters for inferior Courts they should goe to the High Ecclesiastical Synedrion and whoever presumptuously disobeyed their sentence according to the Law though in other things then the forenamed Blasphemie c as appears by this place verse 11. 12. speaking of the Law indefinitely with that 2 Chr. 19. 8 9 10 11. compared together mentioning what cause soever shal come to you of your brethren that dwell in their Cities between Law and commandement statutes and judgements should be put to death the ground of which putting to death here commanded was not only from the nature of these sins against the first Table of the highest forme as Apostasie Blasphemie and such like but for other sinnes in points of Religion though lesser when the sentence and resolution of the high Priest with his Colledges was presumptuously disobeyed so that the punishing of wilful scorneful contempt of supreme Ecclesiasticall Government determining doubts and Controversies according to the word of God though in other cases then Apostasie Blasphemie Prophecying falsly is here commanded But having spoken so much of this Deut. 17. already in p. 101. 102 103 104 105 135 159 160. I shal not enlarge further only I shal take my leave of this Scripture by adding a passage out of Master Cottons late Book against Mr. Williams in way of answer to an evasion of his that the capital punishment prescribed against the presumptuous rejection of the sentence of the highest Court in Israel was a figure of excommunication in the Church of Christ Unto which Master Cotton replyes That Law is of moral equity in all Nations and in all Ages Hee that shall presumptuously appeale from or rise up against the cheifest or highest Court in a free state is guilty laesae Majestatis publicae and therefore as a capital offender to be censured in any free common-wealth And certainly if that part of the Law in Deut. 17. of presumptuously appealing from or rising against the sentence of the cheifest and highest Court in a free State being punished with death be of universal and perpetual equitie then punishing so far at least as to restraine those who presumptuously rise up and contemn the sentence of the highest Ecclesiastical Iudicature in a Church going according to the word of God is of universall and perpetual equitie too and the command of God in that text for punishing is against the man that will not hearken unto the Priest as well as he that will not hearken unto the Judge Deut. 18. 20. sets downe a Law that the * Prophet which shal presume to speake a word in Gods name which he commanded him not to speak shal die as well as hee that shall speake in the name of other gods which place of Scripture proves expresly against Hagiomastix that other Prophets besides those that came in the name of false gods and with other false Doctrine then that let us goe after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them were to be put to death The command is indefinite concerning speaking any word in Gods name which he commanded not to speak which must needs extend further then a Prophet prophecying only of turning to another God for there were many false Doctrines and false worships against the Jewish Religion besides that of Apostasie to other gods Again the scope of the words and several phrases as if the thing follow not nor come to passe thou shalt not be afraid of him show t is meant of other Doctrine then saying let us goe after other gods namely of Doctrine foretelling of some things to come whereas enticing to goe and serve other gods is de praesenti Learned * Iunius writing

to punish for Murther Adulterery Theft more then for Idolatrie Blasphemie Here●ie 2. Hagiomastix brings in the Church again as well as the State surely he is for a Toleration of all Heresies Blasphemies c in the Church as well as the State to have no man punished for his religion with any censure of Admonition Excommunication or Non-Communion In his M. S. he was for spiritual censures but in these 3. yeers last past the man is well improved belike to reason against any Church censure as well as State Punishment And by the way I desire the Reader to observe whatever reason in the wisedome of God there might be that nothing is set down in the Gospels of Christs charging the State with sin for not proceeding against the Sadduces c that cannot be the reason to show the unlawfulnes of Magistrates punishing Hereticks because Hagiom confesses the same of the Church that Christ charged not the Church nor the Officers with sin for not proceeding against the Sadduces and yet I suppose Hagiomastix will not openly professe t is a good Argument that no Church censures may be used against any Heretick however I am sure many of his Compeers in handling the question distinguish of a Toleration and censures granting Ecclesiastical censures though denying Civil And I am sure if Christs never charging the church nor those that bore office in her with sin for not proceeding against the Sadduces be no good argument to take away all Church censures neither is it to lay wast all Magistrates punishing in such cases 3. Christ did to the Scribes Pharisees Sadduces speak and reason against their errors yea reproved and threatned them for those errors which also is granted by Hagiomastix in doing of which he did equivalently and really presse upon them the suppressing and punishing of Heresies in persons under their power whilst he spake to men in Authoritie and denounced the judgements of God because of them He that preaches to a Prince against Idolatrie and showes the evils that will come upon a King and his Kingdome for it preaches to him to restraine Idolatrie though he doe not particularly in expresse words call upon him not to suffer any man to practice Idolatrie and therefore Christ speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees the Rulers and Elders that knew the Laws of God how Magistrates in Israel were to punish false Teachers in speaking so against false Prophets Hereticks and Sectaries as Sadduces c that was a charging them such a thing being spoken to such men to doe their duties against them which by the Law was more then if private persons and being spoken to qua such as Scribes c was a commanding them according to their places to proceed against them For t is a rule among Divines that in many things recorded in Scriptures which are delivered only in common and in general they are to be taken by every one according to their relations and places by the Magistrates according to their relation the Ministers according to theirs and the People according to their Sphere of which many instances may be given in the new Testament 4. Supposing it could be proved Christ never reproved the Jewish Church and State for suffering the Sadduces c yet it followes not Magistrates therefore should tolerate Hereticks and Sectaries and that both because Gods declaration of his mind in other parts of Scripture though not in the Gospel is a sufficient as also because there might be some particular reasons proper to the Iewish State as that Christ saw the Iewish State and Magistracie it selfe that then was to be leavened and corrupted with those errors and opinions to be either Sadduces Pharisees Scribes Herodians and such like so that to have spoken against Toleration and for punishing Sadduces c had been to have spoken to the State not to have suffered it selfe as if one should preach to the Parliament now not to tolerate but to punish themselves So was it for Christ to have urged those commands in Deut. 13. c and those examples of Iosiah Nehemiah c upon the Iewish State then 2. That in the times of Christs preaching the Civil Power of the Common-Wealth of the Jewes was much weakned if not wholly taken away from them by the Romans of which I have spoken something before page 30. and doe now adde that the Iewes had no power at all of capitall punishments then and therefore to what end should Christ charge them with those Lawes of putting false Prophets c to death for full proo●e of which I refer the Reader to Master Gillespies Aarons rod blossoming Book 1. chapt 3. page 29. 30 31 32 33 34 35. who learnedly proves that point both from Scripture and the Testimonies of many learned writers who have written of the Iewish Antiquities and Customes and Answers the contrary objections 3. Christ knew that Church and Common-wealth were to be certainly shortly dissolved the Christian Church to be set up and though he warned the People of those errors and wayes and denounced the judgements of God against them yet because he knew the purpose of God was to destroy the Iewish Common-wealth he might not speake for that and the other Reasons forenamed to the Magistrates as otherwise he would of which the Reader may read more in pag. 30. of this present Book And now for putting a Period to this 17. Thesis and to all the Answers given by me to those evasions brought against ●hose old Testament Lawes of Deut. 13. Deut. 17. and the rest I shall briefly adde 3 things First To cleare a little further some passages of Deut. 13. Secondly show the slightnesse and weaknesse of Hagiomast exceptions against those old Testament Laws Thirdly Show the excessive pride and folly of the man in boasting and glorying in such poor weak things as he brings against the Vindicator of the Ordinance for preventing the groth and spreading of Heresies in Sect. 34. 35 36 37 38 39 40 41. First As I shall adde two places more out of Moses Law before omitted in the beginning of the 17. Thesis to prove the Magistrates power of punishing in matters of the first Table viz Deut. 19. 16 17 18 19. and Numb 15. 30 31. the former in case of Aposta●ie the latter in case of blaspheming God so to all I have said of Deut. 13. I desire the Reader to observe that God having in the former chapter commanded the worshipping of the ture God and forbidden that of Idols which unquestionably is morall this 13. chap. is fitly added to it as an appendix in which God gives direction for removing the impediments opposite to his worship commanded particularly he commands the Authors of Apostasie not to be hearkned unto nor tolerated but to be punished with death and for that end that such who are obstina●e and will not be amended nor regard their own salvation may be hindred at least from being an impediment to the salvation of

Deum Qui volebat de publico vel alioqui de gravi negotio percontari veniebat ad sacerdotem Is indutus Ephod stabat coram arca Domini In Ephoa sine in pectorali erant inclusi duo decim lapides pretiosi in quib us nomina duodecim tribuum erant inscripta Interrogantem oportuit faciem ob vertere ad sacerdotem interrogare non quidem tam aperte ut vox audiretur nec ita etiam obscure ut tantum in anima cogitaret quae petebat Deinde sacerdoti hoc pacto reddebatur oraculum Spiritus sanctivi literae quaedam in pectorali eminebant idque vel loco vel fulgore in quibus sacerdos oraculum voluntatem Dei legebat Haec Chimb● Cui quantum fidei fit tribuendum nescio Potuit enim fieri ut spiritus Dei absque literis oracula ediderit per vocem summi sacerdotis cujus animum vaticinio afflasse● Weems Christian Synagogue Prolegomena cap. 4. The Revelation by Vrim and Thummim is not expressely set down Iosephus thinks when they were to go to battell the Priest putting his Ephod upon him if they were to march then the stones did shine but if the stones did not shine then they were to stay but this seems not to have been a sufficient way to have directed them in other cases Wherefore t is most probable that the Priest having these stones upon his breast that the Lord inspired him by his Spirit what answer to make to every question asked him * Junius in Deut. 17 9 12. Conjunctionem disjuctivam esse apparet ex vers 12. ut reipsa munera esse disparata constat ad quae haec officiorum nomina respiciunt Mr. Gillespies Aarons rod blossoming c. 3. 11. Here are two Judicatories distinguished by the disjunctive Or v. 12. which we have both in the Hebrew Chaldee Greek and in our English translation * Vide Mr. Gil lesp Aaronsrod blossoming Book 3. c. 11 12. showing fully in this Scripture a transmitting difficult cases from inferior courts to those at Ierusalem and to the supreme court there Vid Luther Piscat in locu● In judiciis conveniens ordo observandus est ut sc judices inferiores quū iis oblata est causa difficil●c ex qua expedire se non possunt causam illam deserant ad judices superiorestanquā juris peritiores * Nicol. lyra in Deut. 17. 8 9 10. Surge ascende i. e. in his casibus consimilibus recurrendum est ad superiores judices s● ad summum sacerdetem Judicem populi * Cas Consc lib. 4. cap. 4. pag. 122. Si igitur haeretici sint maniesti publice noxii debent a Magistrrtu publica potestate coerceri Si vero ●tiam manifestè blasphemi sunt in illis blasphemiis pertinaces praefracti possint etiam affici supplicio capitali * De in obedientia in illis rebus quae ex lege Dei manifesto clare determinantur * Hagiomastix page 130. * Ad hoc tribunal referebantur quaecunque non poterant definiri ab aliis vel ambigua erant varia judicia inferiorum judicum experiebantur ex praescripto legis Deut. 17. 8 9. Ainsworth Annot. on the place Weems Christian Synagogue pag. 171. * Vide Diodate English Diviues Annotations on the place * Junius in locum Et si in omnibus aliis causis ad minimum duo testes ex lege requiruntur tamen in religionis negotio unus testis ad Questionem habendam sufficit adeo vult Deus Magistratibus conservationem doctrinae commendatam esse Est autem appendix legis quae habetur supr 17. * Theodoret Quaest in Levit Quaest 33. Deprthensus est quidam qui Deum omnium blasphemauerat nondum autem Lex erat scripta De Blaspemia propterea legislator hanc legem servari jussit * Vide Nicol. Lyram Babingt in locum Lev. 24. 15 16. * Vid. Lyram in Num. 15. Nesciebant tamen qua morte dehebat mori quoniam modus mortis non fuit determinatus Exod. 13. 14. Ergo recluserunt eum quo usque scirent hoc per revelationem Domini ☜ * Lutherus in Deu. 17. 8 9 10 11. Et h●nc locum miro conatu Papistae ad suum Idolū●raxerunt ut Papatum statu●rent * One of the Members of the Assembly was the sole Author of the Vindication of the printed paper entituled An Ordinance for the preventing of the growth of Heresies and not 3. or 4. which worthy Member could hee get any time from his often preaching and constant attendance on the Assembly wold I doubt not make Hagiomastix not only a stripling but a very child * Bilsons true difference between Christian subjection and unchristian Rebellion part 2. p. 277. ☜ * Master Goodwins Modest humble Queres about the Ordinance Quere 2. ☞ * Anapologesiates Antapologias The Preface to the Reader But for those opinions wherein I dissent from Mr. Edwards and the generality of those whom he calls his godly Orthodox Presbyterian Ministers I have bestowed so much labour and travell of soul severall wayes to satisfie my selfe in the truth of them and withal have received such abundant satisfaction from God for what I hold in them in pregnant strong cleare and rationall demonstrations on the one hand in distinct cleare and home Answer to all objections to the contrary that ever I met withall on the other hand that if light be light reason reason sense sense Scriptures Scriptures I suppose I shall never be unsetled or shaken in them though the whole world should rise up as one man to oppose me And therefore being fully perswaded resolved and possest in my judgement soule and conscience that the way of the Congregation is the Truth A Quere concerning the Church Covenant pag. 1. First confident we are as confidence it selfe an make us that there is no commandement given to the Churches for exact●ng any such Covenant to those that are to be admitted into Church Fellowship with them A Letter of Master John Goodwins sent to Master Thomas Goodwin pag. 12 13. Confident I am that there is a light beyond your light in these matters and which you are very capable of if your eyes by your long slumber be not over heavy to open I professe in the sight of God and in as great singlenesse and simplicity of heart as ever n● an in this world spake word unto you that I doe as clearly apprehend Error and mistake throughout the greatest part of your way as I doe in this conclusion that twice two makes foure The necessity of your Covenant Prolix confession of faith putting men to deliver their judgements in points of doubtfull disputations upon and before their admission into your Churches the power of the Keyes and of Ordination of Pastors to be the right and inheritance of the whole body of the Congregation and of every member indifferently and promiscuously the divine institution or peremptory necessity