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A53717 A peace-offering in an apology and humble plea for indulgence and liberty of conscience by sundry Protestants differing in some things from the present establishment about the worship of God. Owen, John, 1616-1683. 1667 (1667) Wing O790; ESTC R21637 31,968 40

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be spiritual and in a spiritual manner only to be exercised 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. And because the Church might not seem to be disadvantaged by this disclamour of Power externally to coerce such as received not the truth that it embraced and to be cast into a worse condition than that of the Jews which went before whose Ordinances being carnal were established and vindicated by carnal Power St. Paul lets them know That this alteration is for the better and the coercion of miscarriages under the Gospel by threatnings of the future Judgment which would have a special respect unto them more weighty than the severest Penalties that were appointed by Moses Law Heb. 10. 28 29 30. Not that lesser Differences in apprehensions of the mind of God in his Word had any punishment assigned unto them under the Old Testament whose penalties concerned them only who turned away to the worship of any other god but the God of Israel and such no man pleads for But that the whole nature of the Ordinances and Worship of the Church being changed from carnal and earthly to heavenly and spiritual so also are the Laws of Rewards and Punishments annexed unto them These were the Rules this the Practice in this case of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. These Rules this Practice hath he recorded in his Word for our Instruction and Direction Might all those who profess Obedience unto his Name be prevailed on to regulate their judgments by them and square their proceedings unto them the Church of God would have peace and the work of God be effectually carried on in the world as in the days of old And for our parts we will never open our mouthes to deprecate any severity that may be warranted from the Gospel or Apostolical direction and practice against any mistake of that importance in the things of God as our Principles and ways may rationally be supposed to be For although we are perswaded that what we profess and practise is according unto the mind of Christ yet because it is our lot and portion to have our Governours and Rulers otherwise minded we are contented to be dealt withall so as the blessed Gospel will warrant any to deal with them who are so far in the wrong as we are supposed to be And if herein we cannot prevail we shall labour to possess our souls in patience and to commit our cause to him that judgeth righteously This we know That the Judgment and Practice of the first Churches after the days of the Apostles was conform to the Rules and Examples that by them were given unto them Differences in External Rites of Worship which were found amongst them where the substance of Faith was preserved they looked upon as no breach of Union at all A long Catalogue of such differences as were from time immemorial amongst them is given us by Socrates the Historian And he who first disturbed the peace of the Churches about them by dividing their communion Victor of Rome is left branded upon record with the censures of the principal persons for Learning and Holiness throughout the world in those days Nor is our dissent from the present Establishment of any larger extent than such as the general consent of all the first Churches extended the bond of their communion unto Impositions of things indifferent with subscriptions to precise determinations on points doubtful and ambiguous with confinements of mens practices in all outward ceremonies and circumstances of Worship were things not born in the world for some hundreds of years after the first planting of Churches Origen in his third Book against Celsus pleads expresly That there ever were differences amongst Professors of Christianity from the beginning and that it was impossible but that there should so be which yet he shews hindered not their Faith Love and Obedience Justin Martyr in his second Apology declares his forbearance and the Churches of those days towards those who believing in Christ yet thought themselves obliged to the observation of Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies provided that they did not impose the practice of them upon others Ignatius before them in his Epistle to the Philadelphians professeth That to persecute men on the account of God or Religion is to make our selves conformable to the Heathen that know not God Tertullian Origen Arnobius and Lactantius openly pleaded for a Liberty in Religion as founded in the Law of Nature and their consistence of Faith with Compulsion in that extent which we aim not at The Synod of Alexandria in the case of Athanasius condemns all external force in Religion and reproacheth the Arians as the first Inventers and Promoters of it It is indeed pleaded by some That the Christians of those days had reason to assert this Liberty because there was then no Christian Magistrate who might make use of the Civil Sword in their behalf or for the punishment of Dissenters from them and that this was the reason of their so doing But the Dishonesty of this pretence is notorious They affirm directly That no force coercion or restraint is to be used in or about the Worship of God nor outward power in a way of Penalties to be exercised over the consciences of men herein To say they thus pleaded and pretended meerly to serve their own present condition and occasion but that upon the alteration of things they would be otherwise minded is calumniously to reflect upon those holy Witnesses of Christ the guilt of the highest hypocrisie imaginable And men cannot invent a more effectual means to cast contempt on all Religion and to root a due sense of it out of the world than by fomenting such imaginations Let them therefore rest in peace under that reputation of holiness and sincerity which they justly deserve what ever be the issue of things with us or those which may suffer with us in the like condition But neither were they alone the great CONSTANTINE himself the first Christian Magistrate with Supreme Power by a publick Edict declared THAT THE LIBERTY OF WORSHIP WAS NOT TO BE DENIED UNTO ANY And until the latter end of his Reign there were no thoughts of exercising severity with reference unto any divisions amongst CHRISTIANS about the WORSHIP of GOD. After the rise of the Arian Heresie when the interposition of Civil Censures upon the account of Difference about things spiritual had made an entrance by the solicitations of some zealous persons for the banishment of Arius and some of his Co-partners it is not easie to relate what miseries and confusions were brought upon the Churches thereby imprisonments banishments and ruine of Churches make up much of the Ecclesiastical History of those days After a while Arius is recalled from banishment and Athanasius driven into it In a short tract of time Arianism it self got the Civil Sword in many places wherewith it raged against all the Orthodox Professors of the Deity of the Son of God as the Synod of Alexandria complains Much