Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	person_n	write_v	1,696	5	5.4406	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45126	A case of conscience whether a nonconformist, who hath not taken the Oxford Oath, may come to live at London, or at any corporate town, or within five miles of it, and yet be a good Christian : stated briefly, and published in reference to what is offered to the contrary, in a book intituled, A friendly debate betwixt a confirmist and a nonconformist : together with animadversions on a new book, entituled, Ecclesiastical polity, the general heads and substance whereof are taken under consideration : as also a peaceable dissertation, by way of composition with some late papers, entituled, Liberty of conscience, in order to the determining the magistrates power in matters of religion.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1669 (1669)	Wing H3673; ESTC R16379	28,077	32

warrant of God's will This is such Doctrine which is plain bottom'd and irrefragable He is the Minister of God for thy good saith St. Paul otherwise he is not God's Minister and hath to other purposes none of God's power Dr. Taylor in his Cases l. 3. p. 35. Quod necessariam non habet conjunctionem cum fine publici commodi non potest praecipi lege humana sayes Suarez from the Schools One difficulty onely there is which is this Who shall judge whether a Law be for the peoples Weal or not I answer The Magistrate must judge as to the making the Law and we must judge as to our obedience to it My Reason I give as readily Because God hath made every man the Judge of his own Actions and consequently of all the Circumstances whether they are agreeable or not agreeable to his will for his forbearance or doing of them So that it is not according to the resolution of any others Conscience but of his own or the Judgement of Private Discretion he shall be justified or not justified in his walking before him Let a Law then be promulgated wherein a man is concerned I thus determine If he deal uprightly that is as a Christian to use industriously this persons word and in his Conscience does judge that the Law is good I mean good for the general whether their spiritual or temporal good I do apprehend he is obliged in Conscience to the obeying that Law at least so far as his particular obedience is conducive to that good though the keeping of it otherwise be to his own disadvantage or private loss If he judges it not good I do suppose he may do well in prudence to be wasy and do perhaps as others do and not run himself into harm's way But really if he observes it not he is to make no Conscience of it as if the thing offended God whether he does it or leaves it undone And here is that very Mean indeed it self for ought I know quod desideratur To wit That the Laws or Commands of the Magistrate even in political and indifferent things does no less than bind the Conscience when he is the Executioner of Gods-Will But though the outward man out of the case of sin may be bound if you will the Conscience cannot be obliged and ought to be still kept free when he is the Executioner onely of his own Humans Laws says the fore-mentioned excellent Doctor and Bishop bind the Conscience of the Subjects but yet give place to just and charitable Causes Whi 〈…〉 competent and sufficient is not expresly and minutely declared but 〈◊〉 to be defined by the moderation and prudence of a good man I know not how this Author may receive this from whom I expect more ingenuity than from many others that is to yield to second considerations But methinks if he had not thought at first when he wrote of any thing besides he might at least have considered that there be Laws which of themselves grow out of date and that it is not Time so much that brings on them their decay as the apprehension of them to be unreasonable unfit or unprofitable to the Land When a Law therefore is by general tasit allowance and practise of the Nation had no longer in regard it is to be accounted as virtually obsolete and so it binds not There was a Law made this Parliament about Carts and Waggons for the better keeping the High-wayes which being found quickly inconvenient to the Waggoners and unanswerable we may suppose to the End it was scarce a Month or two but they heard no more of it I will put a Case now of Conscience to this Person Suppose a man whose living consists in his Waggon and unless he puts more Horses in his Team in his coming up to London than this Law will allow he must give off his Trade or be undone I ask What shall this fellow do By the Doctrine of this Book for ought I can see he can be no good Subject and consequently no good Christian if he goes on I will ask again What thinks the Author of those that die and are buried in the iniquity of Linnen Whether the Women generally of this Nation who cannot abide to have the dead wrapt in Flannel but being used so much to controul their Husbands at home will not be ruled by both Houses to do any otherwise herein than what they think is handsomest for all them are in capacity without their amendment in this point to be saved For my own part I think verily the latter of these Laws being intended tending directly to the particular good of the Nation it ought in Conscience to have been kept yet seeing the very humour only of the Women hath discountenanc'd it so that in the general usage it is annull'd I dare not say that any man does sin that observes it not I dare not say that Wife can be no good Christian that buries her Husband in his shirt As for the Act it self of Oxford I cannot pass methinks without the observation of God's providence toward that great Person who in his Speech that Session so industriously declared himself the Designer Since the Parliament at Oxford it hath been visible sayes he that my credit hath been very little He who had contrived the Banishment of others from their houses by that Act leaves this passage in his Letter at his own departure out of the Realm But though he might be forgetful in his prosperity and unsensible of those inconveniencies which he was bringing those into who had done nothing against him Yet do not thou O God for all he hath done against thee deprive him in his adversity of the favour of thy House nor forget to bring his soul out of trouble when thou shalt first have brought it in with the sense of what has been amiss in such doings For the Oath imposed as the condition of the Nonconformists lawful coming to this City or any other Corporation by that Oxford Act there are the Nonconformists Exceptions against it proposed in that Book entituled A Defence of the Proposition If the Author of this Debate or that ingenious Person who they say is writing something about Ecclesiastical Policy for the justifying present Impositions or that worthy Person his associate who is particularly engaged to it can Answer them let them try This I must say that I suppose the chief of those things which stick in good earnest upon the sober Nonconformist and which others do not or dare not speak out are there offered against that Oath and against Vniformity If they shall set down the words fairly and candidly and answer them satisfactorily they shall do well But if they do not after this notice the world shall account indeed they cannot and what they say otherwise must signifie nothing I will conclude with Grotius and return to my Theme Leges humanae vim obligandi tum demum habent si latae sint

that old and good rule Quod dubitas ne feceris in his mind he resolve to look well to the virginity of his Conscience lest in doing once what he fears to be unlawful he comes afterwards to prostitute it to any thing he knows to be so The truth is the sum of this Chapter is very rash and prophane That whatsoever be our own judgments and apprehensions we must acquiesce in the determinations of our Governors And every Conscience that is not thus perswaded is to be reskoned as seditious and unpeaceable and so to be treated accordingly I purpose not to enter further into Examination of the particulars of these Chapters which may be done more easily in good time by me or others There are three or four things remarkable to me upon the whole Discourse The first is the Magnificence of the Author's Pen and trouling Expression and indeed excellent Parts The next is the very fine Paper and Print of the Book This I set down because as to the matter it self these two things the fine Expression and the fine Paper are but indeed regardable alike The third is the Scorn Presumption and Pride wherein the man must be acknowledg'd unparallel'd with which it is writ And the last is the shortness and unsatisfactoriness in the issue For when he tells us at the end that he hath been sollicitous not to baulk any thing material but hath encountred all the Nonconformists most weighty and considerable Objections he hath not truly once touched those things in good earnest which are the present certain grounds of Nonconformity and Separation There are two sorts we know of Dissenters from the Church of England Those that are of the Presbyterian judgment and are for accommodation with her And those that are of the Congregational judgment who separate from her and cannot own any but their gathered Churches For the Congregationalists they stand here The Church of Christ is a number of the truly faithful and regenerate Persons The visible Church is defined by a profession of true Regenerate Faith and of no less than that according to the general opinion of the Protestant Divines In our Parish Churches now they alleage there is no Profession made of true Grace by any unto Membership at least not such as is credible and no watching over one another after as Brethren in fellowship And consequently there is no visible Church amongst us As for Profession of Infants at their Baptism that is as good as nothing to them seeing Profession is a thing not to be required for it self but for the signifying to the Church or Minister what the Person is who makes the Profession that accordingly he may admit or not admit them to Church-Communion And as for Confirmation we know it is not so used nor can any prove it to be instituted to that use in the Gospel It follows that our National or Parish Churches being not companies of Professors they must gather their Churches that are such and here lies the true ground of Separation And does this Person yet know this Or hath he spoken a word of it Or dare he take this file into his mouth but it will wear out his teeth Let me see what he and his whole Party laying their wits together will be able to say in this Point to purpose But let not any one do it rawly without considering the weight which is here included For if there is nothing to be said by him but that all the Members of our Parishes are indeed such Professors that is a number as have or do so credibly profess their Faith Repentance Regeneration and the saving Grace of God that the Minister hath or doth thereupon receive them as a People endowed all with this Grace supposed to be professed and that the visible Church must be granted indeed according to our Protestants and the Book of our Liturgy to be a number of such and no less Professors than such I doubt me they will prevail little more with the Nonconformist of this make than to root them in their Practise and to judge that Separation is indeed from this Principle a most apparent result and undeniably concluded What man is there alive of such parts as dares revive Mr. Blake's Cause and defend it against Mr. Baxter's Right to Sacraments For the Presbyterian or those Nonconformists who are for Agreement and go under that Name there are many for ought I see not concern'd in any objection throughout this Book unless it be in that of Scandal and some are not concern'd in that for it is not those that are peevish as this man thinks or will be angry at one and endure him no more if he conform that a man need trouble himself about scandalizing The obeying the Magistrate is more than that but it is those tender conscienced and humble good natured Persons that love a man and esteem him and so are like to do as he does only for his example and thereby may wound their Consciences as the matter is shewn before that a man is to be so cautious of in the case of Scandal I say there are many who refuse not happily to Conform to the Liturgy nor any of their things indifferent which they wish yet rather chang'd or forborn but they refuse to conform to Lying and Perjury That is they refuse to Declare and Subscribe according to the Act of Uniformity and to take the Oxford Oath And who does not know what Act that was that made such Nonconformists What is the reason then that this Undertaker hath said nothing in defence of these new Impositions and the Subscription in the Canons If he can Answer what is objected against them and the Oxford Oath in the Book mentioned in the first Sheet we shall thank him if he cannot To what purpose does he beat the air about Conformity till there be some condescention in such things as the truly conscientious may be pressed to obey with the face of ingenuity and righteousness As for this Book we have here already we see it carried on against these men as if they were so many villains that in all their Arguments sought pretences only for their Nonconformity and when the great advantage they get by it is only to be Ejected from their Livings and lose what they had and out of real conviction of the unlawfulness of these Declarations and Subscriptions that are imposed upon them they forbear them and are quiet This man comes with his other things and concludes upon them 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 By which and such-like Expressions as these the Author I doubt me will hardly prove himself a Person of such a tame and softly humour as he assures us Nor may he perhaps when he hath reflected well on the design and substance of what he hath wrote which is

ad humanum modum non si onus injungant quod à ratione natura plane abhorreat If you ask at last How this Sheet comes out thus alone without the rest against this Debate with it I must say What shall a man do when the Press is become so like the Hedge-hog's Den that when they have one door open still for themselves they will be sure to stop the other where the least wind can but blow upon them FINIS The Animadversions HAving written out the foregoing sheet and left it at the Press there is that Book newly come forth entituled A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity wherein the Authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Conscience of Subjects in matters of Religion is asserted containing eight Chapters which require this fresh labour The first is Of the necessity of an Ecclesiastical Power or Soveraignty over Conscience wherein he supposing a competition between the Power of Princes and the Consciences of the Subject gives a superiority to the Power of the Prince above Conscience The very Title of this Book as the flourishing stile does shew him a young man that writ it The Conscience of man is a judgment on his actions in relation to God that is a judging whether that which he is about to do is agreeable or not to his will and it is impossible that any mortal can have an authority over that judgment that the subject should do any thing against it That the Commands of the Magistrate for the peoples good do by vertue of the general Institution and fifth Commandment bind the Conscience so that if they are bound to the King by the Law of Nature or Word of God before this adds a new Obligation and if they be not this brings one on them will be confest I think by the most judicious and sober in this point but that the Authority of the Magistrate must take place of the Authority of Conscience when they stand in competition is a determination I suppose that is strange and unheard-of in the Orthodox VVorld Every single person sayes the Author is subject to two supream powers the Laws of his Prince and the Dictates of his Conscience and therefore if the supream power of the Prince must give place to that of the Conscience it ceases upon that score to be supream because there is a superiour authority that can countermand all its laws and constitutions And who is there that understands himself that does not know the sense of this spoken in modest and right terms as it ought is what is most true and what all are to assert The Supremacy of the King I hope is over the Subject as to their Persons and their Causes not over their Consciences If we were to conceive indeed of men that they might chuse what Consciences themselves pleased and then plead them against the Magistrate as the face of his words do carry it that which he sayes here would have reason and of all Villains the ill-meaning not the well-meaning Zealot as he speaks would be the most dangerous But when the Conscience that man hath is no other then what God hath placed in him and he hath no power himself over it which is and must and will be whether he will or no conclusive with him according to the Light of Nature and the Word of God there is no danger to the Migistrate though some of his Commands sometimes may not actively be obeyed in yielding that authority which is due unto Conscience And how indeed shall a man be subject to the Magistrate for Conscience sake if the command of Conscience had not in it a superiour and more prevalent Power than his It would be for his own sake and not for Conscience sake if his authority were greater than it I remember being discoursing with some about the Title of this Book presently after I had it a little Boy about ten years of age being carried belike to a Play that week which being never at one before had made some impressions in his mind Why Mother sayes he to her standing by Lacy hath confuted this Book for he acting the Tyrant said in the Play That Conscience was a greater King than he I will take this note from hence It is pity that Religion should be brought as it were on the Stage and made Comical in the Friendly Debate and that the Stage should speak more truly and tenderly of Conscience than this Book of Ecclesiastical Polity His Second Chapter is a more particular account of the Magistrates Power in the Affairs of Religion the extent whereof he endeavours to shew to be the same with his power over the Conscience in matters of Morality But this Person hath received no long information into his understanding I believe of these matters for he may be pleased to know that some perhaps of the best that have wrote on this subject will grant him freely that the Magistrate hath the same Power in matters that are Religious as in those that are Moral when there is none will say that that power is over the Conscience in either This very daring as accomplished young person too presuming on his own parts must be acquainted therefore That it is one thing to grant the King his Authority in matters Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and another to grant him any Authority over the Conscience in the least thing in the world If the Magistrate command any matter of Morality or of Religion or of Civil Affairs which are good for the People that which is commanded does oblige as well in the one as in the other But if it be evil which he commands that is if it be against the Word of God in Religion against vertue and honesty in Morals against the common good in Civils such things are to be forborn though Commanded and what or who can be judge if it be so but a man 's own Conscience And how irrational consequently as well as presumptuous are such kind of speeches That Princes may with less hazard give liberty to mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences unless the acts of men were to be bruitish and performed without judgment His Third Chapter is of the subject-matter of the Magistrates Power that is not the inward acts of the mind but the outward actions from whence he would state the Liberty of the Conscience to lye altogether in the freedom of a man's thoughts judgment or opinion and that Religious worship which is internal when as for his outward actions or practises in the Service of God as of all things else he would have men not so shy of granting the Magistrate power to use still his own language over their Consciences But this really is short of what here is to be said that is a few first thoughts taken into the Pen and written away glibly For though this distinction of the inward and outward acts of men is one thing requisite to the determining the Point in hand

really but an open tendring that Scandal to his Brethren in his sort which Christ and his Apostle St. Paul hath so forewarned us to take heed of which is the inducing the Tender and Conscientious to do those things whereof they are unsatisfied and so to sin in the doing have so much confidence as he now seems to have in what he has done For if the black Ox shall come to tread once on this young man's foot and he grow graver or if it shall please the Lord to touch his presumptuous soul with the sense and horror of that one text or some other That it were better that a Milstone were hung about his neck and he thrown into the Sea then that one of Christ's little ones who are now tender of their Consciences should do what he hath advised it may be I say the poor man may have reason to change his Conclusion to pray to Gods above all men that his Book take no effect and taking little joy what Pilate did to with-draw the breath of his Defiance and to wish that What he hath written were unwritten Reader there is an Answer come fresh out to the Friendly Debate which is yet wholly unseen to me There is also a little Book of a subject very rarely before offered to the Publick entituled The Childrens-Petition and Remonstrance to the Parliament presented belike to both Houses on Wednesday last which appears to me of such concern to posterity that I cannot but take this spare place between these Papers to give notice of it as fit to be furthered upon that account by all who are lovers of Purity and ingenuous Virtue The Dissertation THe Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity came to my hand within two or three days after it came abroad I kept it by me about just a week and then carried the preceding Animadversions to the Press to come out with the first sheet But how many weeks it may be ere they be printed I know not In the mean while I think good to prepare two or three more in regard of one subject which is so necessary to be adjoyned that it lies at the bottom of all our business That is Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Religious Affairs I must confess I have some Papers by me besides those against the Friendly Debate which are not controversal and contentious but healing and tending to peace The Original Design whereof was for Moderation on both sides to wit For Condescention on the part of Authority towards Tender Consciences and for submission on the part of the Subject so far as every one can to what is established I shall leave those Papers perhaps but the more entire in their proper matter and yet supply my self here out of some former years thoughts for this present occasion Indeed the power of the Supreme Magistrate in things Religious is a business of great Concern and assured Difficulty That the Church is to be govern'd by those Officers whom God hath set in it appears reasonable That such are Apostles Pastors and Teachers unto whom the Keys are committed and not the Sword cannot be denied That when there is no formal power then at all in the Magistrate over the Church of Christ there is some Superintendent inspection nevertheless belonging to him as Episcopus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiastical Affairs the Example of the good Kings in the Old Testament and Constantine under the times of the New and the Confessions of all Churches will allow That in the exercise of this external objective power which he hath in the Church he is not to be a blind Executor onely of the Bishops will in putting a Sanction on their Canons and enforcing the observance without having the Book of the Law delivered to him and consequently a Judgement of Discretion whether they be agreeable to the Rule of Gods Word and condition of his People the consonant Judgement of Protestants will assert on all hands Now then when the Magistrate hath something to do and not all to do in these Affairs how or how far this Authority of his is to be maintained or stated that it intrench not on the Liberty of Conscience which is due to his Christian Subjects as peculiar and sacred to God is the Attempt I perceive of some late Papers bearing that Title The Arguments whereof especially as to the Nations Interest I have already praised The state of the Question I judge also to be tendered with much Ingenuity and Reason but when they come to the very point where I expect their notion fixt that I might set my foot upon it and stand fast I find the ground methinks sinking away from its Foundation Let us consult Common Places on that head De Magistrata and we shall find these are made two Questions by Divines Whether the Magistrate is to TAKE CARE of Religion Whether he is to COMPEL HIS SVBJECTS to it And when the former is granted generally from that Text Deut. 17 18. and that Tenet That he is Custos utrinsque Tabutae the latter is denied yet with Caution Distinguish say they between Cogere ad fidem and i●terdicere exercitio in heterodoxia Posterius ad evitandum corruptionem scandala competit Magistratui Distinguish again of a Commonwealth or Kingdom free or not free from divers Religions Ibi cavendae hic tolerandae sed cum conditione ne publica Religionis exercitia heterodoxis facile concedantur By this little we see a door open for Christian Prudence to be let in to the decision of these matters which being guided by the Light of Universal Nature and the General Rules of Scripture must needs make very much way for variety of Judgement and Practise in the Case To state these matters then a little which our purpose requires The Civil Magistrate says the Apostle is the Minister of God for our good The Souls good is the best good Ea est optima Respublica with Aristotle Ex cujus instituto quisque optimè beatissime vivat As Religion makes Folks be●● Subjects and best men it makes them most happy having the Promises of this Life with a better The institution of the Magistrate upon this Account appears to be for this End That the People may lead peaceable Lives under him in all Godliness as well as Honesty It is not consequently for us here to imagine that the Magistrates Authority does extend onely to Civil Things but to take a care of Sacred also and to see the Will of God to be executed in both Im●●●atores sacra saecularia ex aequo curant sin ad singula veniatur fatendum est angustius esse jus imperii circa sacra quam circa profana bac una ratione quod Lex divina de sacris plura constituat libertati eximat quam de caeteris rebus To this purpose we must know that Actions or Things quae subjacont humano imperio are either such as are determined and necessary being