Spirit and sufficient Rule 23. That men must believe the Scripture without reason for their believing it or must believe it to be Gods word without seeking any proof that it is his word 24. That it is meritorious to believe the Scripture to be Gods word without knowing any proof or reason of it this being an infused faith and proof making it but acquired 25. That we must believe Gods word no further than we have evidence of truth from the nature of the matter revealed 26. That Mahomet is the Paraclet promised by Christ V. Of the Creation 1. That this world was from eternity and not made in time 2. That an evil God made this earth or a middle God between the perfect God and the evil one As old Hereticks variously spake 3. Or that such an evil or middle God made the body of man 4. Or that such an evil or middle agent made the woman 5. That God made sin and death and disorder before sin deserved them 6. That when God had made this world he left it to the Government of certain Angels who fell and necessitated man to fall 7. That the World is Gods body and he the Soul of it and no more 8. That the world came by chance or by a fortuitous conflux of atomes and was not made by Gods wise and powerful word or action 9. That there is nothing in the world but matter and motion and the various shapes of matter caused by motion or at least nothing but God and matter and motion and its modal effects 10. That the world is Infinite as being made by that infinite God who made it as great and good as he was able and therefore infinite in his own similitude VI. Of Angels and Spirits and Heaven 1. That men can certainly tell the space number and order of all the celestial regions orbs or spaces and the number of Angels or when the first were made 2. That this world or earth was made by Angels only 3. That the fallen Angels were necessitated by God to sin and to tempt man 4. That God hath so left to Angels the Government of this world as not to govern it himself save by such leaving all to their free contingent action 5. That all that which scripture ascribeth to the Holy Ghost is done only by Angels 6. That we may know which are our Guardian Angels 7. That men may choose their own guardian Angels or spirits 8. That we must pray to Angels though we see them not or have no special notice when they hear us 9. That Angels lusted after women and begat Giants of them before the deluge 10. That they fight with each other for the government of the Kingdoms of this world even the good Angels among themselves VII Of Man as man in his nature and first state 1. That mans soul is God or part of God 2. Or is only a part or act of an universal soul of the world and is no singular or individual substance in each one 3. That the soul is but a quality motion or action of a higher agent 4. That the soul is mortal and dieth with the body being either annihilated or asleep or sunk into a meer potentia or hath no knowledge will sense or action or is swallowed up in the universal soul so as to lose its proper or numerical existence 5. That mans soul is of the same species as the bruits 6. That mans spirit only is immortal and continueth after death but not his soul 7. That mans soul or spirit was from eternity 8. That it was made before this earth and sinned in a former body and was thrust for punishment into this body and world 9. That the souls departed of men are sent back into beasts or at least into other men and so are oft born 10. That mens souls are fallen Angels 11. That Adams soul was made first male and female before it was incorporate 12. That Adams body was the cloathing that God made him after he sinned having no body before 13. That neither soul nor body was made after Gods image as Epiphanius ill affirmeth 14. That mans Vital faculty Intellect and Will are but accidents of his soul 15. That the soul is moved but as an engine by an extrinsick cause and hath not any Essential self-moving form or power 16. That no man can do more or less or otherwise than he doth because God as the first mover necessitateth all his actions 17. That the will hath no habits but a meer power and liberty 18. That Adam and Eve had no holiness or holy inclination to love God as God and to obey him but a meer neutral possibility 19. That Adam had not help or strength sufcient or necessary power to have forborn his first sin 20. That man was made only to be an inhabitant of earth as Angels are of heaven and is not capable of an higher habitation VIII Of sin Original and subsequent 1. That God is as much the Cause of all sin as he is of darkness and such other privations and that he made Adam sin or that he irresistibly predetermineth every ones will to every forbidden act which it doth 2. That the Devil irresistibly necessitated Adam to sin and so some superior cause did the Devils 3. That sin is not only the occasion of much good but a proper cause and as such is decreed willed and caused by God 4. That God made a Covenant with Adam that if he sinned all that came of him should be reputed sinners farther than they were really seminally in him and by natural in-being and derivation were partakers of his guilt and corruptions and so that God made them sinners by his arbitrary imputation when naturally they were not so 5. That Original sin necessitateth every sin of omission or act which ever after followeth in the world 6. That sin being a meer privation all are by nature deprived of all moral good and so all are equally evil and as bad as those in hell notwithstanding any thing that the Redeemer hath done to prevent it 7. That infants have no Original sin no guilt of Adams sin and no sinful pravity of nature 8. That Infants have no participation of guilt of any nearer parents sin but Adams only and God doth not inflict any punishment on children for their fathers sin because of their derived guilt by nature 9. That therefore Infants have no need of a Saviour to suffer for their sin nor of a pardon 10. That Infants need not the Holy Ghost to sanctifie them by killing any sinful pravity or inclination in them 11. That sin was not the cause of death 12. That sin deserveth not hell or an everlasting punishment IX Of Redemption and the Covenant of grace made to Adam and Noah 1. That God made no promise Covenant or gift of grace to Adam after his fall 2. That God made the Covenant of grace only to Adam and the elect and not to all mankind in him
them I was once blamed for dating a book out of the Common gaol or prison in London as if it reflected on the Magistrate But I imitated Paul and mentioned nothing which the Rulers took for a dishonour as their actions shewed Doct. 2. Beseeching is the mode and language of wise and faithful Pastors in pleading for Vnity and against Schism in the Church For they are not Lords over the flocks but helpers of their faith They have no power of the sword but of the word They rule not by constraint but willingly nor such as are constrained by them but Voluntiers It is not the way to win Love to God to Pastors or to one another to say Love me or I will lay thee in a gaol stripes are useful to cause fear and timerous obedience but not directly to cause Love And hated Preachers seldom prosper in Converting or Edifying souls or healing disordered divided Churches Doct. 3. Though Grace find us unworthy it maketh men such as walk worthy of their high and heavenly calling that is in a suitable conversation answerable to the principles of their faith and hope Christianity were little better than the false Religions of the world if it made men no better If Christ made not his disciples greatly to differ from the disciples of a meer philosopher he would not be â—hought greatly to differ from them himself The â—ruits of his doctrine and spirit on our hearts and lives are the proofs and witness of his truth we wrong him heinously when we live but like other men And we weaken our own and other mens faith by obscuring a great evidence of the Christian Verity And those that are of eminent holiness and righteousness of life are the great and powerful preachers of faith and shew men by proofs and not only by words that Christ is true Doct. 4. Lowliness is a great part of Christian worthiness and a necessary cause of Christian Vnity and peace This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but the same thing which Paul elsewhere Act. 20. 19. tells this same Church that he practised towards them exemplarily himself Lowliness of mind containeth both low and humble thoughts of our selves and low expectations as to honour and respect from others with a submissive temper that can stoop and yield and a deportment liker to the lower sort of people than to the stout and great ones of the world As Mat. 5. to be poor in spirit is to have a spirit fit for a state of poverty not in Love with riches but content with little and patient with all that poor men must endure so Lowliness of mind is a disposition and deportment not like the Grandees of the world but suited to Low persons and Low things condescending to the lowest persons employments and indignities or contempt that shall be cast upon us A proud high-minded person that is looking for preferment and must be somebody in the world is of a spirit contrary to that of Christianity and will never lie even in the sacred Edifice nor be a healer but a troubler of the Church of Christ and must be converted and become as a little child before he can enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 18. 3. And indeed only by selfishness and pride have come the divisions and contentions in the Church even by those that have made it the means of their domination to cry down division because they must have all to Unite in them in Conformity to their opinions Interests and wills A humble soul that can be content to follow a Crucified Christ and to be made of no reputation Phil. 2. 7. Heb. 12. 1 2 3. and to be a servant to all and a Lord of none and can yield and stoop and be despised when ever the ends of his office do require it is a Christian indeed and fit to be a healer Doct. 5. Meekness or Lenity is another part of Christian worthiness and a necessary cause of Vnity and Peace Though in some this hath extraordinary advantage or disadvantage in the temperature of the body yet it is that which persons of all tempers may be brought to by grace A boisterous furious or wild kind of disposition is not the Christian healing spirit If passion be apt to stir wisdom and grace must repress it and Lenity must be our ordinary temper we must be like tame creatures that familiarly come to a mans hand and not like wild things that flye from us as untractable otherwise how will such in Love and peace and sociable concord ever carry on the work of Christ Doct. 6. Love to each other is a great part of Christian worthiness and a most necessary cause of Vnity and peace Of which I hope to say so much by it self if God will as that I shall here pass it by It being the very Heart and Life of Vnity Doct. 7. Long suffering or a patient mind not rash or hasty is another part of Christian worthiness and a necessary Cause of Vnity and peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath more in it than many well consider of I know it is commonly taken for restraint of anger by patient long-suffering But I think that it chiefly signifieth here and elsewhere in Pauls Epistles that deliberate slowness and calmness of mind which is contrary to passionate haste and rashness When a passionate man is hasty and rash and cannot stay to hear another speak for himself nor to deliberate of the matter and search out the truth nor forbear revenge while he thinketh whether it will do good or harm or what the case will appear in the review this Longanimity will stay men and compose their minds and cause them to take time before they judge of opinions practices or persons and before they venture to speak or do lest what they do in haste they repent at leisure It appeaseth those passions which blind the judgment when wrath doth precipitate men into those conceptions words and deeds which they must after wish that they had never known Hasty rashness in judging and doing for want of the patience lenity of a slow deliberating mind is the cause of most errors Heresies and divisions and of abundance of sin and misery in the world Doct. 8. Bearing supporting and forbearing one another in Love is another part of Gospel worthiness and needful means of Vnity and peace Doubtless to forbear each other patiently under injuries and provocations is a great part of the duty here meant But both Beza who translated it sustinentes and the Vulgar Latine which translateth it supportantes seemed to think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth something more While we are imperfect sinful men we shall have need of mutual support and help yea we shall be injurious provoking and troublesome to each other And when Christians yea Church Pastors are so far from supporting and sustaining the weak that they cannot so much as patiently bear their censures neglects or other effects of weakness Unity
ages of the Christian World hath shewed that they did not well understand it If universal constant undenyable experience be not enough to prove that it is so and hath been so and therefore will be so Let the certain Causes of it be considered 1. Men are born of much different Intellectual complexions and degrees of capacity some are Ideots or natural fools some are half such some are very flegmatick and dull of wit and must have long time and teaching to learn a little and of memories as weak to retain what they learn some have naturally strong wits and as strong memories If these be bred up in the same house will they therefore have the same knowledge and conceptions § 4. 2. And as men naturally differ in quickness and dulness of wit so they do in the temperature of all their humours and bodies which accidentally will cause great difference in their minds A sanguine man hath usually other thoughts and perceptions than a phlegmatick man and a phlegmatick man hath other thoughts and sense of things than the cholerick have And the melancholy man differeth from them all and often from himself As these tempers variously affect the phantasie and the passions so consequently they do usually the Intellect and the Will § 5. 3. The Countreys that men are born in it not by the air and soil at least by the great diversity of Languages Laws Governments and Customs do make much difference in mens conceptions As we see by experience in the difference of many Nations § 6. 4. The very sins or merits of Parents may do much to the hurt or benefit of Children partly by corrupting or bettering their bodily temperature and partly by Gods curse or blessing on their souls As I have fully proved in my Second Disputation of Original Sin § 7. 5. And were there no other cause of different conceptions than the different education of children by their parents it would make a very great difference in the world When one is brought up in Learning and another in barbarism one in reading and hearing Gods Word and another in contemning and deriding it One is taught to reverence Gods name and truth and another to blaspheme them or despise them One is taught one Religion and another another One is taught to lay all his salvation on that which another is taught to abhorr And it is not only in Divers Lands but in the same Cities Towns and Streets yea among men that publickly profess the same Religion in Name and Generals that this difference is found § 8. 6. And if Parents make no difference yet Schoolmasters often will With their Grammar learning one teacheth his Scholars to deride such or such a party of Christians as Hereticks Heteroclites or anomalous and others say the same of others as they themselves do like or dislike And Boyes usually take deeply their Masters dictates especially if they be cunning and malignant and such as the Devil and flesh befriend § 9. 7. And it is no small difference that Company and Converse cause Even among Children and Servants in families and Boys at School from whom they are as apt to receive ill impressions as from evil Teachers And therefore variety of company in Youth is like to breed variety of sentiments § 10. 8. And the different Books which they read will make the like difference while one writeth against that which another proclaimeth to be excellent and necessary and all set off the matter with such plausibility and confidence as young and unexercised persons are unable to see through and perceive the error § 11. 9. And when they go abroad in the world the difference among those that they converse with all their lives may well be expected to cause much difference in their thoughts If they be set Apprentices one falls into a family of one mind and another of another And so if they be servants And their friends and companions will occasion as much And if they marry the different judgements of Husbands and Wives may do the same § 12. 10. And especially when differences in Religion have already got possession of all mankind in some degree and they set themselves to enquire after the nature of these differences and being at first unskilful are unable to try and judge aright they must needs fall into great variety of judgements § 13. 11. And the great difference among Preachers and Pastors of the Church will be as powerful a cause of discord to youth and learners as almost any of the rest while one Preacher condemneth that as a dangerous errour and frighteneth them from it as a heinous sin which another extolleth as necessary truth or duty And yet thus it is in many particulars even where men profess the same Religion witness the many loads of books that are written by the Papists against each other As the Dominicans against the Jesuites and the Jesuites against them The Jansenists against both and their odious charges of highest false doctrines and crimes in their provincial Letters and the Jesuits Morals Gulielmus de sancto Amore and his partners against the Fryars The secular Priests against the regulars such as Watson in his Quodlibets and abundance more such like And in what Countrey almost or City do not preachers in some measure differ and breed diversity of senses in the people Which Paul foretold even in the purest times and Church that of their own selves should men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Besides the grievous Wolves that should enter and devour the flock Act. 20. 30. It must be that heresies must arise that they that are approved may be made manifest In Corinth some were of Paul and some of Apollo and some of Cephas and they had such divisions as shewed them to be much carnal At Rome they judged and despised one another about meats and drinks and dayes Rom. 14. 15. And some caused divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which they had learned Rom. 16. 16 17. In Galati◠they had Judaizing teachers that troubled them And at Antioch some taught them that except they were circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved Act. 15. 1 c. In Asia some Churches had Nicolaitans and such as taught them to eat things offered to Idols and to commit fornication and the woman Jezabel that seduced them and some had such as Diotrephes that received not the brethren and cast out those that did and prated even against the beloved Apostle with malicious words Divers Churches had perverse disputers about the Law and genealogies and such as strove about words that profited not but to the subverting of the hearers and some whose doctrine fretted like a Cancer who subverted whole houses whose mouths were to be stopped And the Colossians had such as were for humane ordinances touch not taste not handle not and for worshipping Angels and prying into unknown things Col. 2. And Paul telleth the
and to their works § 31. III. And they all believe that the Holy Spirit being God and one in Essence with the Father and the Son proceeding from the Father and or by the Son is the Great Witness Agent and Advocate of Christ before at and after his coming into the world incarnate by his gifts of Prophecy Miracles and Sanctification convincing sinners and drawing them to Repent and Believe and dwelling in Believers as an operating cause of Divine Life and Light and Love thus Uniting them to God in Christ their Head and to each other in Faith and Love by which they are gathered to him as his Church or body having the forgiveness of their sins and the adoption of Sons and right to the heavenly inheritance And living in holy communion on earth their souls at death are received to happiness with Christ and their Bodies shall be raised and soul and body Glorified at the last with Jesus Christ and all the blessed in the perfect Vision Love and joyful Praise of the most Glorious Jehovah § 32. And as I. All Christians agree in this Belief so also II. They all solemnly in and by the Baptismal Covenant and their holy Eucharistical Communion and other duties Profess the Consent of their wills to these Relations to God their Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifier and to his Church or body and their thankful Acceptance of the foresaid Gifts And they profess and express their seeking-desires hereof according to the Contents of the Lords Prayer § 33. III. And as to Practice they all agree in professing and promising obedience to Christ according to the Law of Nature the Decalogue and all his Written Laws so far as they understand them and their desire to Learn them to that end § 34. All sincere Christians agree in the true and Hearty Consent to all this And these are the true saved Church of Christ called Invisible because their Hearts-consent is Invisible All other Baptized and Professing Christians with them agree in the Profession of all this And are called The Church-visible their Profession being visible And all this being truly included in Baptism which is our entrance into the Catholick or Universal Church in this before described consisteth our Catholick Communion in Christs body as spiritual or invisible and as visible § 35. II. But besides this Universal Church-Union and Communion for ORDER and Advantage to our great end God hath instituted the ORDER of Christian Assemblies or Particular Churches which are to the Vniversal Church as Cities and Corporations to a Kingdom Which are the noblest and most priviledged parts of the Kingdom but yet not essential parts but eminently Integral For it may be a Kingdom without them and would be if they were all disfranchised and laid common And if Apostles and Evangelists as Itinerant Preachers convert and baptize men they are part of the Church Universal before they are gathered into distinct societies under proper Pastors of their own The Eunuch Act. 8. was baptized into no particular Church but into the universal only and so were many others And meer Baptism as such without any additional contract doth no more If thousands were Converted in America or cast there without Pastors they were parts of the Universal Church if baptized Professing Christians And before the Apostles ordained any fixed Bishops or Pastors of particular Churches the Church Universal was in being though small § 36. But these particular Churches being a great part of Christs Institutions and necessary not only by Precept but as a means to the Well-being of the Universal and the Edification of it and the particular members It must be endeavoured and that with good hope of success that there may so much Particular Church-Vnion be obtained and maintained as shall much conduce to its great and excellent ends That is 1. So much as that in them God the Father Son and Holy Ghost may be Publickly solemnly and constantly confessed by sound doctrine holy worship and holy discipline and conversation 2. So much as that hearty Christian Love may be exercised and maintained and Christians edified in Communion of Saints 3. So much as that God shall accept them delight in them and bless them their converting edifying and comforting souls hearing their prayers and praises and owning them by his Ministry Covenants and grace and differencing them from the people that do not thus confess and worship him and promoting hereby their salvation And if this much be attained it is not to be vilified for want of more nor blotted with reproachful names but acknowledged with thankfulness and praise § 37. III. And yet there is a further degree of concord to be hoped for and endeavoured and that is the concord of these particular Churches with one another That they may all Profess 1. The same faith and necessary doctrine 2. and the same Love to God and one another 3. and the same Hope of life eternal 4. and may offer to God the same necessary and acceptable sort of worship viz. by preaching and applying his holy word recorded in the holy Scriptures preserving and reading them calling upon his holy name by Confession prayer thanksgiving and praises and holding respective communion in the use also of the Sacraments of his Covenant and exercising in some measure such holy Government and Discipline by Pastors overseeing their several flocks as he himself by his institution hath made universally necessary And all this though not in perfection nor every where with the same degree of purity and care yet so far 1. as that Gods word and ordinances be kept up in soundness in all parts and respects necessary to salvation 2. and as may tend to the edifying of the Churches by Love and concord in necessary things and their mutual help by counsel and strength by that concord 3. and the avoiding of pernicious feuds and divisions § 38. The means by which this is to be done 1. by communicatory Letters 2. by Synods 3. and by Civil Governours is after in due place to be explained Thus much of Christian Vnity and Concord may be well hoped for upon just endeavours here on earth But neither Perfection in these nor those unnecessary terms of Concord which some have long taken to be necessary § 39. And indeed so much as may be hoped for is so very hardly to be obtained that if we trusted not to Gods extraordinary Grace more than to any natural probability that appeareth to us in man we should be ready to despair that ever Christians should live long in so much peace and concord And though the great difficulty must not kill our hopes it must much quicken us to strenuous endeavours Of which more anon Satan is so great an enemy to it and every sin in man is so much against it as every disease in the body is against its ease and peace and the multitude and malignity of sins and sinners is so great and the very healers so few and faulty and unskilful
making too much necessary to Church Vnion and Communion § 1. ADdition to Christs terms are very perillous as well as diminution When men will deny either Church entrance or Communion to any that Christ would have received because they come not up to certain terms which they or such as they devise And though they think that Christ giveth them Power to do thus or that reason or necessity justifieth them their errour will not make them guiltless Imputing their errour to Christ untruly is no small aggravation of the sin § 2. Nor is it a small fault to usurp a power proper to Christ to make themselves Law givers to his Church without any authority given them by him Their Ministry is another work § 3. And it is dangerous Pride to think themselves Great enough Wise enough and Good enough to come after Christ and to amend his work and do it better than he hath done § 4. Much less when they hereby imply an accusation against him and his institutions as if he had not done it well but they must amend it or all will be intolerable § 5. And indeed Mans work will be like man weak and faulty and full of flaws when Gods work will be like God the effect of Alsufficience power wisdom and Love § 6. And the merciful Lord and Saviour of the Church that came to take off heavy burdens and intolerable yokes will not take it well to have men come after him and as by his authority to make his easie yoke more strait and his light burden heavy and to cast or keep out those that he hath Redeemed and doth receive and to deal cruelly with those that he hath so dearly bought and tenderly loveth § 7. And indeed it is ofter for mens own interest and dominion to keep up their power and honour of superiority that men thus use the servants of Christ than truly to keep clear the Church and to keep out the polluters § 8. But when it is done by too much strictness and as for Church-purity yet this also hath its aggravations For men so far to forget themselves that they are servants and not Lords sinners that have need themselves of mercy unfit to be too forward to cast the first stone to seem more wise and holy than Christ is but specious offending him § 9. And as spiritual priviledges excel temporal so is it an aggravated Tyranny to deprive Christs servants of benefits so precious and so dearly bought As it was not with Silver and Gold that we were Redeemed so neither for the enjoying of Silver and Gold Communion with Christ his body and blood and his Saints in his Ordinances is a blessing so great that he that robs such of it that have right to it may answer it dearlier than if he had rob'd them of their purses O what then hath the Roman Usurper done that hath oft interdicted whole Kingdoms of Christians the use of holy priviledges and duties § 10. Little do many men that cry up faith and Orthodoxness and Catholicism and obedience and cry down Heresie Schism Errour and Disobedience believe how much guilt lyeth on their souls and without Repentance how terrible it will prove to be charged with the cruelties which they have used to good Christians in reproaching them and casting them out of the Church and destroying them as Hereticks and Schismaticks that should have been loved and honoured as Saints But some men cannot see by the light of the fire till they come so near it as to be burned § 11. These self-made or over-doing terms of Church-Union and Concord will prove the certainest Engines of Schism And none are so heinous Schismaticks as they that make unnecessary terms of Union and then call all Schismaticks that consent not to them For 1. these are the Leaders of the disorder when other sort of Schismaticks usually are but followers 2. These do it by Law which is of most extensive mischief even to all that are subject to them when others do it but by local practice extending but to those that are about them or the particular assemblies which they gather 3. These make the Schism unavoidable when private Seducers may be resisted For it is not in the power of good men to bring their judgements to the sentiments of every or any dictator or yet to go contrary to their judgements Ilicitum stat pro impossibili 4. These aggravate the crime by pretending power from God and fathering Schism on so good a thing as Government and causing it as for Unity it self 5. They condemn themselves by crying down Schism while they unavoidably cause it § 12. And this over-doing and making unnecessary termes unavoidably involveth them in the guilt of persecution and when they have begun it they know not where to stop Suppose they decree that none shall preach the Gospel or assemble for holy Communion in publick Worship but those that subscribe or swear or promise or profess or do somewhat accounted sinful by the persons commanded and not necessary indeed however esteemed by the imposer who yet perhaps calls it but Indifferent It is certain that no honest Christian will do that which he judgeth to be sin It is certain that other mens confident talk will not make all men of their minds to take all for lawful which they take for such what then will the Imposers do They will make strict Laws to punish severely all that disobey For say they Our commands must not be contemned nor disobedience tolerated so do the Papists as to the Trent Oath c. so did Charles the fifth a while about the Interim and so many others These Laws then must be executed The Pastors must be cast out the preachers silenced They still believe as Daniel did about praying and the Apostles about preaching that God commandeth what men forbid and it is a damnable sin to forsake their calling and duty no less than sacriledge and cruelty to souls and deserting the Church and worship and cause of Christ and the people will still believe that no mans prohibition can excuse them if they forsake Gods publick worship and comply with sin The Prelates will say that all this is but errour wilfulness and rebellion and they can prove the contrary Their words will not change the judgement of dissenters The Pastors and preachers then must be fined imprisoned or banished for preaching and the people for publick worshipping God when they are fined they will go on when they are out of prison they will return to their work nothing is left then to remedy it but either perpetual imprisonment banishment or death When this is done more will still rise of the same mind and continue the work that others were disabled to perform And the Prelates that cause this will be taken by the suffering people for thorns and thistles and grievous Wolves that devour the flocks and the military Ministers of the Devil The indifferent common people knowing their Neighbours to
performance-sake to engage us to do what we promise 2. And as a known false Covenant is null as to the benefit of the Covenanter though not as to his obligation so at the entrance a mans word is his credible profession but if he by notorious wilfulness violate this word or promise in any essential point he then so far nullifieth his verbal profession as to his benefit and proveth his Covenanting to be false And therefore all disciplined Churches do cast out gross impenitent violaters of that Covenant in such essential parts § 2. But what is such violation and for what fin men are to be cast out is a difficult question in some instances 1. I take it for a sure rule that no man is to be further cut off from the universal Church by sentence than he first morally departeth or cuts off himself For the Pastors have not their power for destruction but for edification And their office is subservient to Christ who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them even to seek and to save the lost They are not to be hurtful but helpful to mens souls § 3. 2. He therefore that apostatizeth or denyeth any one essential article of Christianity cuts off himself first and is to be declared by the Churches sentence to have so done if he repent not If he timely repent it must prevent the sentence § 4. 3. Whatever sin amounteth to an evident refusal of promised subjection to Jesus Christ cuts off the sinner morally from Christ and if he prevent it not by repentance he is to be sentenced accordingly by the Church who do but thus declare who depart from Christ and cut off themselves § 5. 4. Every sin is not a renouncing of our allegiance or subjection to Christ nor to be censured by excommunication 1. There are sins of meer infirmity or imperfection in duty as imperfection of sincere faith love hope obedience prayer c. 2. There are sins of sudden passion and surprize which the will habitually abhorreth and the sinner quickly repenteth of 3. There are sins of ignorance which a man knew not to be sins 4. There are sins of meer forgetfulness 5. Yea it is not all presumptuous sin that is a renouncing of our subjection A faithful man knoweth that the least sin should be avoided and he may know that vain jesting or idle words are a sin And he may be often guilty of these by some degree of presumption that is he may be tempted to think that all men being sinners such a sin may stand with grace and for want of due excitation not fear it or fly from it because it is a little one as he would do from perjury murder or some greater sin No small evils or danger doth so much suscitate the soul to resist and avoid it as a greater doth no man is so careful to avoid the prick of a pin as of a sword This want of suscitation through the smallness of the thing maketh less resistance and so some degree of presumption in all men § 6. 5. No one Act of sin sufficiently repented of is matter for a just excommunication be the sin never so great For the penitent are pardoned If the Repentance be before the excommunication it preventeth it For the first part of discipline is to perswade the sinner to repentance as being intended for his recovery and salvation and excommunication is never just but when the sinner will not repent As under the Law of Innocency death was the wages of any sin but under the Gospel faith and repentance are the remedying conditions so accordingly though Adam was cast out of Paradise for the first sin none are to be cast out of the Church for any sin meerly as a sin but as not repented of by a believer I say not that this is the Magistrates rule in punishing the body but the Pastors in excommunicating § 7. 6. Yea the time and means of admonition for bringing the sinner to repentance must be competent and such as are suitable to a rational hope of his repenting and not as some Lay Chancellors do if a few rough words make them not repent presently excommunicate him nor pro forma to say thrice I admonish you I admonish you I admonish you and then I excommunicate you It is not a jeasting matter nor to be past as hastily as angry word The sinner must be gravely and seriously told of the evil of his sin and if it be something which he taketh for no sin he must be convinced by Scripture proof and must be heard speak for himself with patience and if he hear not a more private admonition he must be reproved before the Church that many may consent for the more authoritative conviction and for the warning of others and that the Church may thereby clear themselves as not consenting to the sin 1 Cor. 5. And the excommunication is only to pass at last when repentance justly seemeth hopeless § 7. But yet there is much difference herein to be made in respect of the difference of sins and of persons 1. A sin of errour or ignorance or controverted as also a smaller sin requireth a longer time of patience for the sinners conviction before he be judged to be impenitent But a notorious sin against the light of nature or plainest proof and of most scandalous consequence must have shorter time of patience yet so much as that the sinners passion may be over and he may have leisure well to consider of the evil and of the Churches reproof § 8. As gravity convincing reason compassion and patience are certainly necessary so it seemeth very convenient at least that when the sinner is admonished before the Church the Congregation joyn with the Pastor in earnest Prayer to God for his conviction and repentance and if that prevail not at once in tolerable cases to do it again before the sinner be cast out Ye ought to mourn saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 5. Men will not cut off a corrupt member of the body hastily nor till flat necessity nor without sense of pain § 9. It is not every sin that a man repenteth not of that is a just cause of excommunication For there is no man living that hath not some sins which he no otherwise repenteth of than as in general he hateth all sin so far as he knoweth it For every man hath sins of ignorance and every man hath some degree of errour and some faithful men have more than others and take some sins to be duties or no sins and some have darker minds than others that are hardly convinced and cannot perceive the force of an argument against the prejudice before received And some are educated where some sins are praised and converse with such persons as by their parts and interest in them harden them in their errour How many thousand zealous Papists Nestorians Eutychians Greeks take others for hereticks by mistake and perhaps by words and actions wrong or
and English Kings will see what ado Kings had to keep the Bishops and Priests from filthy fornication and utter corruption of their function § 4. 4. Obj. But if Princes meddle with Pastors Preachers and Religion when far more of them are bad than good and erroneous than in the right it must follow that more good will be hindered by them than evil and in most places the best will be persecuted by them and the worst approved and preferred Answ 1. And was it not so and worse under the Popes and their Prelates Let their own historians judge 2. Nay it hath been ill Clergy men that have instigated Princes to do most of the chief to the Church that they have done 3. This tells us the calamitous case of mankind but not at all how to help it 4. This argument should urge Princes to amend but not to neglect their duty for fear of doing it amiss By the like argument in Moscovy they have put down preaching saying Most will preach amiss And others put down all praying save the reading of imposed words saying that most else will pray amiss And so these would restrain Princes from Governing Bishops and Preachers and matters Ecclesiastical saying Else they will do most amiss 5. But it is supposed that Princes have their Councils And as they consult with Lawyers in matters of Law and with Souldiers in matters of War and with Physicions in matters of that profession so they will consult with Divines as they are called in matters of Divinity and Religion § 5. Obj. 5. But Religion is to be perswaded and not forced which will but make hypocrites Ans We cannot force men to know or believe and we ought not to force them to lie But they may be restrained from doing notorious mischief and constrained to hear that they may learn § 6. Obj. 6. But that which you think wrong seemeth right to them and every mans Conscience is his Law and he must obey it and whatsoever is not of faith is sin Ans 1. None but the Atheist or irreligious take all Religion to be uncertain Man is naturally Animal religiosum made to serve God in order to future happiness And Religion were no Religion if a man could have no satisfactory notice of its truth 2. No mans Conscience is his Law no more than it is the Law of the land It is but as his eye in reading it a discerner of the Law And mistake is not discerning 3. No man ought to take evil for good nor to do evil because he thinketh it good but first to use means for information and then to judge better and then to do better 4. Though whatever is not of saith is sin yet whatever is of errour is of sin too and not of faith And we are not for forcing men against their conscience to any thing unnecessary or any thing which they are uncapable of but for restraining them from that mischief which an erring judgement leaveth them to and putting them on necessary duty which they can do should they not be forced to feed their children if their Consciences be against it Or to pay their debts or their taxes tythes and other dues § 7. Obj. 7. On the other side some and more will say that any toleration of diversity in Religion especially of Assemblies is contrary to the unity and harmony which should be among Christians and will cherish heart-burnings and cause differences in the State and foment seditions and rebellious no discord having worse effects than those about religion Answ 1. To tell us that men are dark and selfish and proud and passionate and therefore contentious and that this is the calamity that sin hath brought on all the world is but to tell us what we all must know But what 's that to the Cure All sin and all discord is contrary to our desired concord and is our reproach But shall no sinners therefore be endured Ye suffer fools gladly saith St. Paul seeing you yourselves are wise 2. Will your way of violence make this better or far worse Will men that really have any religion forsake it for fear of any thing that you can do against them It is not Religion if it set not God above man When they suffer by you will they like you or your opinions the better for hurting them or the worse If ever you let them out of prison will they not come out more alienated by exasperation If you force the timerous or hypocrites to dissemble to save the flesh will they not hate you and your doctrine the more as that which soul and body are both oppressed by And will not their sufferings move compassion in the people and your cruelty alienate those that else would never have forsaken you what a shameful thing is it to hear and read mens tragical outcries against necessary toleration which Christianity and humanity plead for while they are the causes of that which they exclaim against and are furiously making it tenfold worse If diversity in Religion be such an evil cause it not by your unnecessary Laws and Canons and making engines to tear the Church in pieces which by the ancient simplicity and commanded mutual forbearance would live in such a measure of Love and Peace as may be here expected Are men liker to hate you or to plot rebellions for being gently used as men or cruelly like slaves or dogs Nay slaves are freemen in comparison of those that are dissenters from the Pope if he get them in his power Though it be but for refusing to deny belief to all mens senses and consequently to Gods natural revelation If you can cure all mens errours do it but begin at home But killing is not curing in the sense of wise Physicions or Patients Your way cureth errour as the man that was angry with the Looking-glass for shewing him his ugly face did cure it by breaking it into twenty pieces and then it shewed him twenty ugly faces for one There are no tolerated sorts among us here that are more accused by all for seditiousness and rebellion when they once got some seeming strength than the Anabaptists and the people called the fifth Monarchy men But have they ever even at Munster made any such horrid slaughters in the world as the great enemies of Toleration have done Did they ever murder 200000 people that lived peaceably at once as the Frish Papists did Or forty thousand if not as some say twice as many as they did at the French Massacre Or so many thousands if not millions say some as were kill'd of the Albigenses and Waldenses in France Piedmont Italy Germany c. Or did they ever use Christians as the Inquisition hath done Or did they ever use Emperors as Henry the fourth and fifth and Frederick were used Or kill two Kings successively as Henry the third and Henry the fourth of France were killed Nay did ever the Novatians yea or the furious Prelatical Donatists make
renounce all doctrines and practices of Rebellion sedition or Schism I believe not that subjects may take up Arms or use any force or conspiracy to violate the Rights Authority or Persons of those in supreme Power over them I believe not that by any Laws of God or Man the Bishop of Rome hath the right of Governing all the world or all Christian Kings and Kingdomes nor the King or Kingdome of England in particular in matters secular or religious Nor that it is the duty of this Kingdome or the King to subject themselves unto him and obey him Nor that the said Bishop of Rome hath any true authority or right to impose oaths on Kings or other temporal Lords or otherwise oblige them to judge their subjects to be Hereticks who deny the Popes universal Supremacy over all the Churches on earth or who deny that the universal Church hath any Visible Head but Christ or who believe that the truly consecrated Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper remain true Bread and Wine after the Consecration or that believe they are not to be adored as their God nor the Wine to be denyed to the Laity communicating Nor may the Pope oblige Kings or any others to exterminate burn or kill or punish any such as hereticks nor excommunicate Kings or temporal Lords for not doing it nor depose them being excommunicated nor give their Kingdomes or Dominions to others nor authorize any to kill them or to raise arms against them and to invade their Countreys by hostility Nor hath he right or authority to forbid Kingdomes or Countreys the publick celebration of Gods worship or holy Christian Communion Nor to oblige any Rulers or others to destroy any as Hereticks or judge them such because they are so judged by the Pope or Councils And I believe not that the Clergy are exempted from obedience to the Secular Powers or from being judged and punished by them by any Laws of God or any valid Laws of man not made or consented to by the said Powers And I unfeignedly believe that if any Pope or Council how great soever do decree or assert any of these things which I have hereby renounced and disclaimed or shall hereafter decree or assert any of them they err and sin against God in so doing and are not to be believed therein nor do oblige any thereby to obey them And all this I profess as in the sight of God my Judge without fraud or dissimulation in the sincerity of my heart THe errours which men should be restrained from preaching or propagating are innumerable and not necessary to be all put into a subscribed or professed renunication so they be actually forborn I will recite part of a Catalogue of false and doubtful dangerous points not fit to be published by preachers I. Of the nature and acts of God 1. The God is corporeal or material 2. That God is essentially only in Heaven or in some finite space 3. That God hath parts and is divisible 4. That God hath the parts or shape of humane bodies head face eyes hands feet c. properly so called 5. That God is the Universe or whole world or that he is meerly or properly the soul of the world as his body and so but a part of the world 6. That God or any essential of God is really new changeable or finite 7. The God can suffer hurt or hath proper real grief and passion 8. That God knoweth not all that hath been is or will be and all that is intelligible 9. That Gods own essential perfection goodness and love is not the ultimate and chief object of mans love to be loved chiefly for himself as most amiable and above our selves and all things created but that he is only or chiefly to be loved as our Benefactor or as good to the creature And so that man is Gods end and his own chief and ultimate end and not God mans chief and ultimate end 10. That God is the first and chief or any proper cause of sin or that God doth by efficient premotion as the first cause predetermine every mans mind will tongue and members to every forbidden act that is done as it is determined to and specifyed by the object with all its forbidden circumstances and modes and so to every lie perjury hatred of God and goodness murder c. that is committed 11. That God ruleth the world only as an engine by physical motion and doth not rule any free agents by moral means as precepts prohibitions promises c. in any acts saving as these are parts of his physically necessitating motion 12. That God may or ever doth lie or by his inspiration or his works of nature or providence necessitate innocent persons de facto or oblige any as a duty to believe that which is false 13. That God hath so committed the affairs of this world to Angels or any creatures or natural means as not to mind them or particularly govern and dispose of them himself 14. That God is essentially or virtually absent from the effects which he causeth 15. That God hath not power to do any more or otherwise than he doth though he would 16. That Gods will is not the fountain and the measure of all created good or that things are not good because they are willed by God 17. That Gods proper and absolute will desire and decree may be disappointed and not come to pass 18. That somewhat of or in the creature may be a true or proper cause of somewhat not only relative but real in God or make a real change on God 19. That God hath no vindictive or punishing and no rewarding justice 20. That God may be formally conceived of and comprehended by man and not only known analogically and as in a glass II. Of the Blessed Divine Trinity 1. That there are three Gods or three divine essences or substances 2. That the Trinity are but Three Names of God or three relations of him to the creature 3. That they are Three parts of God 4. That the three Persons are one God only in specie as Abraham Isaac and Jacob are One man because they have but one humane sort of nature 5. That one person in the Trinity is in time or dignity before or after other or greater or less than other 6. That in the Trinity there are three Fathers three Sons or three Holy Ghosts 7. That the doctrine of the Trinity is contradictory or impossible to be true 8. That it is unnecessary to be believed or preached 9. That there are no Impressions or notes of the Trinity on the soul of man or any other known works of God 10. That the works of Creation Redemption or Sanctification are no more eminently or otherwise ascribed in Scripture to any one Person in the Trinity than to the other That Creation is no otherwise ascribed to the Father than to the Son and Holy Ghost nor Redemption to the Son than to
renounced by Ministers but to lie before the Church Rulers to tell them what to forbid Ministers to preach and moderately and wisely to rebuke or restrain the offenders as wisdome shall direct them according to the quality of the persons and the offence and their frequency obstinacy or impenitency in offending Not that every one should be ejected or silenced that holdeth or preacheth any one such errour but only those who consideratis considerandis are found to do more harm than good The Third Part OF SCHISM OR The False Dividing Terms and Means OF UNITY and PEACE CHAP. I. What Schism is and what are its Causes and Effects Sect. I. SCHISM or Divisions among Christians is by the Common Confession of all Christians a sin against God and a dishonour and hurt and danger to the Church but especially to the guilty But what it is and who are the guilty men are not so much agreed on Each Party laying it upon the other and one taking that for Damnable Schism which another taketh for his greatest Duty And while the guilty are no better known the Division is continued and few repent Sect. II. SCHISM or Division or Rents among Christians is considerable I. As to the Agents when it is by 1. Many 2. Few 1. The Pastors or Rulers 2. The People either 1. The Learned 2. The Ignorant II. The Terminus as it is dividing 1. In a Church and not from it 1. From their Government 1. Of one 2. Of More 1. Few 2. Many 1. Sound 2. Unsound 3. From the Universal Church 2. Communion 2. From a Church III. The Act As 1. In kind 2. In degree which both are either 1. Inward 1. Of Mind 1. Dividing Opinions 1. Of Doctrines 1. Of Faith 2. Practice 1. Worship 2. Conversation 2. Of Persons by consent 2. Ignorance of necessary means of Unity 2. Of will and passion 1. Wrath and uncharitableness 1. To things 2. Persons 2. Love to 1. Division 2. Dividers 2. Outward by 1. Words 1. Of Persons 1. Single 1. Rulers 2. People 2. Collective the Church 2. Things of 1. Doctrine 2. Practice 1. Towards God 2. Towards Men 2. Deeds 1. Separating 1. Morally by merit 2. Actually 2. Promoting Schism 1. Drawing Others 2. Resisting 1. Uniting Persons 2. Uniting Means Doctrine Acts IV. The Effects 1. On Christians 1. Single 1. The Dividers 2. Others viz. 1. Pastors 2. People 1. Weak 2. Strong 2. Collective 1. That Church 2. Other Churches 1. Church 2. State 3. Families 2. On those without 1. Unbelievers 2. Enemies All these things should here distinctly be considered A large Scheme of the Causes Nature and Effects of Schism and Contentions with the Remedies c. I have prefixed to my Book called Catholick Theology Sect. III. Of all the sins that men charge on one another there is none used by Accusers more partially and less regardably than the charge of Heresie and Schism the words usually signifying no more but that the accused differ in judgment from the accusers and are not so obedient to them in matters of Religion as they expect Insomuch that whoever can but get uppermost or get the major Vote doth usually make it his advantage to call himself Orthodox and Catholick and all Dissenters Hereticks and Schismaticks By which means Heresie and Schism are greatly promoted while many that else would hate and oppose them are tempted by this usage to take the words to be but proud mens reproach of the innocent Sect. IV. The full opening of all the parts of Schism will be a work so long as may tire the Reader I will therefore first give some notice of them transiently and briefly and then examine some things that are by others supposed to be the Causes and shew how uncapable divers means are of being terms of real Union and Concord which some men venditate as the only or necessary terms Sect. V. 1. A Schism made by Many is in some repects worse than by Few and in some not all so bad The sins of many hath more guilt than of one Their ill success is like to be greater Those will fall in with the multitude who would despise a singular tempter The Donatists prevailed in Africa by their number It seemeth by their Bishops in their Councils that they were the greater part It is not impossible for the far greater number to be the Schismaticks But yet the guilt of singularity is more upon a single Separatist or few that dare separate from the whole or most of the Churches Sect. VI. 2. The Bishops and Pastors are liable to the sin of Schism as well as the ignorant people Yea as Mutinies seldom happen in an Army at least to any great danger unless they be headed by some Commander so seldom hath there been any Heresie or Schism in the Church of which some Bishops have not been the Leaders or Chief Promoters since Bishops were great in the world at least and before they or some Elders were the Chief To instance in Paulus Samosit Apollinarius Novatus and his followers Maximinus and the Donatists Nestorius Dioscorus Severus and the multitudes more which Church-History mentioneth and which made up the Councils at Ephes 2. Arrinene Sinnium Milan divers at Constantinople Alexandria and multitudes more would be but to suppose my Reader a stranger to such History which here I must not do for then I cannot expect that he should take my word Sect. VII It is a far greater sin in Bishops and Pastors to be Schismaticks than in the People because they are supposed to know more the Good of Concord and the Means and the Mischiefs of Schism and the Causes and Remedies And it is their Office to be the Preachers of Unity and Peace and to save the People from the temptations which would draw them into such guilt Sect. VIII Bishops and Pastors have greater temptations to Schism than the People and therefore have been so frequent in the guilt especially Pride and Covetousness in them hath stronger Faith And 1. Striving who shall be Greatest and have Rule 2. Who shall be thought Wisest and most Orthodox have been the cause of most of the Schisms in the world And 3. Sometimes especially with the Presbyters and People it hath been who shall be thought the Best and Holiest persons But the two former have done much more than this Goodness being that which corrupt nature doth not so much contend for or the reputation of Holiness as for Greatness and Wisdom the commoner baits of Pride Therefore Controversies and Power and Riches have been the usual matters of Dissension Sect. IX 3. True Learning tendeth to prevent and end Controversies which Ignorance cherisheth as it did with the Egyptian Monks that turned Anthropomorphites But a smattering in Learning which amounts not to solidity and a settled mind is the common cause of Heresies and Schism while praters must needs be taken for wise and to know more than others while they know nothing as they ought to know
and in the Mâ—nâ—thelites Error and a great part for Image-worship and as now many Churches of the Protestants agree in Consubstantiation and Church-Images and many in rejecting Prelacy and many in asserting it but all agree not in any of these though the eldest sort of Episcopacy for ought appeareth almost all in many ages did acknowledge and agree in But yet that which never united the Universal Church but tended to discord will have everywhere usually no better a tendency § II. Yet I have before enumerated divers Particulars which are needful and useful to the Concord of a particular Church which are not so to the Universal As that all the Members have the same Numerical Pastors the same Translation of the Scriptures read to them the same Versions and Tunes of Psalms when they meet together the same place and day and hour of meeting Because these in the nature of the thing are necessary to Concord and avoid Discord and Confusion And if divers Churches associated or all in a Kingdom or divers Kingdoms can agree in the same convenient modes and circumstances as the same Translation of the Bible so far as they have one language the same day of Easter Anniversarily to Commemorate Christs Resurrection as they do weekly on the same first day and some such like it will be laudable so it be done by voluntary consent as a thing of convenience and not of necessity and without tyrannizing over one another or persecuting or despising those that differ or turn it into an Engine of Rents and Schism by making it necessary to their communion which is the unhappy end of most humane impositions of indifferent unnecessary things He that thinketh he hath hit on the fittest Ceremonies â—ites or Modes is seldom ever content with liberty to use them but he must force all others if he can to his way and take away the liberty of all that differ from him We see it by sad experience that men think their Forms and Ceremonies cast out if all may not be compelled to use them though many think them sinful and they had rather have none of them than have them upon terms of meer liberty lest they be disgraced by the disuse or contradiction of those that do forbear theâ— And such men are never content with Union and Concord in Gods own Institutions and in circumstances that are in genere necessary § III. But some men are stiff in the Schismatical Opinion that though Churches of many Kingdoms may charitably differ in Ceremonies and indifferent things yet none in the same Kingdoms should be suffered so to differ of which I spake before But 1. Christ hath given us no such different measures of our Charity Forbearance or Communion 2. The old Churches were quite of another mind as Socrates and Sozomen shew in several instances And it is known that in the same Empire every Bishop had power to use his own Liturgy and other Modes as I instanced in the Canon that requireth every man to bring his Form first to the Synod to be tryed and in the contention between Basil and the Church of Neocesarea and the strife about Gregories and Ambrose's Liturgy and such like 3. It was the Pastors and People of the same Church of Rome that St. Paul giveth the Precepts of Forbearing and Receiving Dissenters in things indifferent to And still mark that he wrote not only to the Laity but to the Rulers as is evident and therefore forbiddeth them such narrowing impositions being himself also a chief Pastor an Apostle and so declareth his own judgment as one that would himself make no such uncharitable impositions § IV. We deny not but some Churches have a while continued in laudable Concord notwithstanding such ensnaring Impositions But 1. It hath been but for a time and this Worm hath fretted them and it hath ended in their great detriment at least 2. And it was not by these means but by better causes notwithstanding these diseases so that as we answer the Question Whether a Papist may be saved so do we answer the Question Whether such Churches may have prosperous Concord viz. 1. If the Essentials of Christianity in Papists and of Communion in such Churches be practically held so as to be more powerful than their Contraries 2. But not by their Contraries but by overcoming them one may be saved and the other have peace even as we answer the Question Whether a Man may live that taketh Poyson or hath the Leprosie 1. Not if it be prevalent according to its malignant nature 2. But yea if it be overcome by natural strength or medicine § V. Chillingworth our powerfullest Disputant against the Papists hath fully laid down the true Principles of Christian Concord and the Causes of Schism even the making more necessary to Salvation or Communion than is necessary indeed And the famous Hales though too bold and sometime going a step too far hath said more against these true Causes of Schism with great Truth and Reason than the Authors of it can well bear But wisdom is justified of all her children CHAP. XI The Severity and Force of Magistrates denying necessary Toleration and punishing the Refusers of unnecessary uncertain suspected things will never procure Church Vnity and Concord but in time increase Divisions § I. HAles of Schism speaking of having two Bishops in a Diocess saith pag. 223. Neither doth it any way savor of Vice or Misdemeanor instancing in Austin's doing it ignorantly their punishment sleeps not who unnecessarily and wantonly go about to infringe it The most pious and wise Church Historians extoll the two peaceable Bishops of Constantinople that quietly bore the Novatian Bishops by them and geâ—tâ—y reduced Chrysostom's Followers the Joannites and dâ—spraise Nestorius and such other turbulent Prelates that persecuted them on pretence of zeal against Error and some of them proved more erroneous themselves § II. This crying out for the drawing of the Sword against those that differ in unnecessary things 〈◊〉 a great dishonour to the persons that tell men how conscious they are of their own insufficiency for their proper work and a reproach to the power of the Keys as if it signified nothing without the Sword And in all Ages Men of Ambition and Insufficienâ—â—y and Uncharitableness have been thus calling to the Magistrate to do all when yet in general claim they have set themselves far above him as being for the Soul when he is but for the Body § III. But Experience hath still confuted them and that which one Age or year thus built the next hath ordinarily pull'd down Not but that orthodox pious Princes are an unspeakable blessing to the Church and the want of such are ordinary causes of sin distraction and misery But such must know and do their proper work and not serve the pride and humor of ambitious ignorant Clergymen nor be their Lictors or Executioners nor lend them the Sword to execute their wills § IV. Constantine defended the