to the Church dispersed over the face of the whole earth Again the Eastern Christians that are thought to come from Nestorius the Southern Christians under Prester John that maintain the memory of Dioscorus and condemn the fourth Council of Chalcedon cannot be admitted to be Catholicks by any man that owneth the four Councils But in regard it appeareth not that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches though they owne the memory of their persons and in regard there is cause enough to presume that they would with all their hearts be reunited to the Church did not the See of Rome refuse all terms of Re-union that include not the infinite power which it challengeth they cannot be included within the Catholick Church without reserving a liberty to exclude them whensoever in point of Faith it shall appear that they owne the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches As for the Canons of the Church it was never neceslary to the maintenance of Communion that the same Customs should be held in all parts of the Church It was only necessary that several Customs should be held by the same Authority Which is to say That the same Authority instituted several Customs which they thought to be for the best in several times and in several places For so they might be changed by the same Authority and yet Unity remain Whereas questioning the Authority by questioning whether the Acts of it be agreeable to Gods Law or not how should Unity be maintained This is the Reason of that which I said even now that the Fathers do not agree in any thing but in the Faith and the Laws of the Church For it is manifest that they could not have agreed in the Laws of the Church if any had excepted against any thing used in any part of the Church as if Gods Law had been infringed by it Seeing therefore it is manifest that there are certain Canons and Customs known to have been the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church owned by this Church it followeth of necessity that nothing can be disowned by this Church as contrary to Gods Law which holdeth by the Primitive Church So it is not my intent to say that the Canons and Customs of the Primitive Church ought to be in force And that there is no other means to restore Unity in the Church But that nothing can cause a Breach in the Church that hath Authority from the Primitive Church And that nothing can have Authority in the present Church that infringeth the Authority of the Primitive Church as if Gods Law were destroyed by any Act of it Further there are two points in the Title and Cause of the late War Episcopacy and Sacriledge wherein the Cause of the Crown hath been so united to the Cause both of this and of the Catholick Church that I may well say that to disowne the same Cause in other points alike Primitive and Catholick would be to deny the Conclusion admitting the Premises Or to keep divers weights and measures in the same Budget The Plea for Episcopacy and for Consecrate Goods hath made out so much evidence for it self that it hath helped to recover the Laws of the Kingdom And shall not the Laws of the Kingdom so recovered maintain the same Plea in all other things For the Visible Unity of the Catholick Church as it never subsisted but in the consent of Bishops so was it never maintained but out of Consecrate Goods CHAP. VI. What Errours have followed because it is not so expresly BUt I do freely acknowledge that though this Church hath many Obligations to owne this Principle for their Rule yet it is not formally and expresly inacted by those Laws of the Land whereby Religion and the Rights of the Church are established For I do further claim that the want of inacting and inforcing it and driving it home to the true Consequence in every point is the Cause and Sourse not only of the disorders which divers pitiful plaisters have been tendred to cure But of all disorders imperfections and decays of Religion which have succeeded upon the Reformation having been made without limiting those bounds And that the present disorders in Religion are the Symptoms of a common disease which all men are offended with but cannot be cured without recourse to the Unity of the Catholick Church and the terms of it wherein that health of Christianity consisteth which all division impeacheth I do therefore freely acknowledge that I find two positions to be the sourse of all those Excentrical Opinions in Religion which caused that Confusion upon the issue of the War that helped to make way for his Majesties happy Return The first is that there is no Condition for the Covenant of Grace That there is no Contract in it but a meer Promise The second is that there is no such thing as a Visible Church instituted by God But that men are first Children of God by Faith then members of a Church of free choice Of these Positions the one necessarily dependeth upon the other For the Faith of the whole Church from the beginning requires Baptism to Salvation And therefore includeth it in that Faith which alone justifieth And by consequence requires that justifying Faith cannot be understood without that Profession of Faith which a man maketh at his Baptism And this will necessarily infer a Church therefore Visible because Catholick For it is agreed upon by the whole Church that Baptism in Heresie or Schism That is when a man gives up himself to the Communion of Hereticks or Schismaticks by receiving Baptism from them though it may be true Baptism and not to be repeated being given in the form of the Church yet is not available to Salvation making him accessory to Heresie or Schism that is so Baptized Now it is not my intent to say that these two Positions were expresly and formally professed by Companies distinguishing themselves from others by Ecclesiastical Communion in the Profession Which is the true signification of an Heresie in the eye of the Church But the Positions I maintain to be Heresies in so much that if there were such Companies they must of necessity be taken for Heresies in the account of the Church And my Reason is clear For it is acknowledged by the whole Church clearly delivered by our Lord in the Gospel that the taking up of his Cross is a necessary condition to Salvation Now since our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to Baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it is evident that ever since we take up Christs Cross when we undertake at our Baptism to lay down our lives rather then deny the Faith of Christ or transgress his Commandments And since this Promise is not available unless it be deposited with the true Church it cannot be available to him that continueth not in the true Church that may exact the Promise deposited with it If any man ask whom I can charge
can have Power to introduce any thing for Reformation in the Church but that which the Consent of the Whole Church either injoyneth or alloweth Not as if the least Tittle of Scripture were not enough to warrant that which it injoyneth to be the Reformation of the Church But whereas the sense of the Scripture is that which remains questionable not the Authority of it that nothing can be the true sense of the Scripture which the Consent of the Whole Church contradicteth And therefore that though there be an appearance of truth in such a sense yet it is not for a Christian Kingdom to inact it for Law till it be duely debated And that being done it will infallibly appear in all which in most things appeareth already that the Consent of the Whole Church cannot contradict the true sense of the Scripture And that it is nothing else but not knowing the one or the other that makes it seem otherwise If the Scripture it self is not nor can be owned for Gods Word but by the Consent of Gods people from the beginning attesting the Motives of Faith related in the Scripture to have been infallibly done by submitting to the Faith which they inforce Then must the same Consent be of force to assure common reason that the Faith and the Laws wherein the whole Church agrees came from the Authority setled by God not by any Consent of all Christians to fall from that which they Profess And therefore though a Kingdom may force the Subjects thereof to call that Reformation which they inact yet they can never make it Reformation in that sense which the Salvation of Christians requires if it be not within these bounds It may be called Reformation to signifie a New form but it can never be Reformation to signifie that form which should be unless it signifie the form that hath been in Gods Church For that being One and the same from the first to the second Coming of Christ can authorize no other form then that which it may appear to have had from the beginning CHAP. IX That it cannot be done without the Synods of this Church ANd therefore it being granted on both sides that the Soveraign Power of Christian Kingdoms and States proceeding duely obligeth the Subjects to submit to the Reformation of the Church and cannot exact Legal Penalties of them which refuse upon any other Terms I do except in the second place that it ought to proceed in all Reformation by and upon the Authority of this Church That is of the Synods For what doth the whole Church agree in so Visibly as in this That the Authority which God hath instituted in his Church should give Laws to his Church And how can a Christian Kingdom promise themselves Gods blessing upon such Acts as they have no Power nor Right from God to do For granting there is such a thing as a Catholick Church it is not possible that any Christian Kingdom which must be a part of it should have Power to inact any thing Prejudicial much less destructive to the Whole to the Visible Being which is the Visible Communion of it And therefore the Faith and the Laws of the whole being the Condition under which the parts are to communicate no Christian Kingdom can have Power from God to give New Laws in Religion to the Subjects thereof which the Church of the Kingdom warranteth not to be according to the Laws of the whole Church If any thing may appear to have been in force in the Primitive Church and by the abuse of succeeding times to have become void I do not deny that the Secular Power may Reform the Church by restoring it though the Church should refuse their Consent to it The reason is because the Church would be without help if there were no Lawful way to restore the decays of it Which we agree have come to pass without the consent of them that are chargeable for the decay of it Now the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church are the Birth-right of all Christians Purchased by undertaking to Profess one Catholick Church at their Baptism And Christian Powers are to protect their Christian Subjects in their Birth-right And the Authority of the present Church is not seen in the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church For it is meer matter of Fact what they are The evidence whereof praeexistent to the Authority of the present Church cannot be understood to require or to presuppose it And therefore the Authority of the Church cannot be violated by reducing the Faith and the Laws of the Primitive Church into force Nevertheless in regard that which is decayed can seldom be restored without determining new Bounds which the present state of the Church requires It is manifestly the Office of the Church to determine the same Nor can it be done by Christian Powers of this World without assuming to themselves that Authority in which they are to maintain the Church For though Soveraign Power hath Soveraign Right in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical yet is it capable of no Ecclesiastical Power or Right But is to maintain those that have it by the Laws of the Church in the use of it If any thing were done at the Reformation setting aside the Synods of this Church which I am here neither to deny nor to acknowledge it must be justified upon this Account that they refused the Authority of the Whole Church in authorizing the Reformation of this Church If any thing now may appear to be demanded upon the same Account let the Authority of the Synods be passed by for their punishment if they hinder the Reformation of the Church by refusing it But that cannot appear till it may appear First that the matter demanded ought to have the force of Law in the Church having been of force and since decayed by the injury of time or corruption of men Secondly that it is of such weight that Religion is like to have more advantage by restoring it then the Vnity of the Church shall suffer by violating the Regular Authority of the Church What thanks I shall have of my LL. the Bishops for this I know not For I deny that they themselves can have any Authority in the Case that shall not be confined within the same bounds But it is not possible for him that is the most jealous of the Rights of the Crown in Church-matters to say what danger there can be to this Crown in securing the Conscience of the Kingdom by the Authority of the Church For the acknowledging of those Bounds which the Authority of the Church is confined to as well in respect of Soveraign Power in the Dominions whereof it subsisteth as of the rest of the Church leaveth no Plea for it to Vsurp either upon the Crown or upon the Christian Subjects of it And all this I claim by S. Paul where he commandeth all Christians to abide in that state in which they are called
Regeneration be altered in the Liturgy and Rubricks of it For this point is an instance how easily the substance of Faith necessary to Salvation may be questioned or abated or renounced by a Clause of such an Act. I grant it is clearly S. Pauls Opinion S. Peters Opinion our Lord Christs Opinion the Opinion of Gods whole Church Be it the Opinion of those whose Opinion is our Faith But he that would have it no more then Opinion must teach us a new Faith No Remission of Sins but by Baptism Entring us into the Covenant of Grace which the Vow of Baptism inacteth Entring us into the Church into which the Sacrament of Baptism introduceth Abate the Covenant which the Sacrament of Baptism inacteth and how shall a Christian be regenerate Abate the mention of it in the Service and where will be the Faith which this Church with the Whole Church hitherto professeth Shew me any Christian that ever questioned it till it was questioned what was to be Reformed in the Church and let it be abated Could Pelagius have questioned it his Heresie had not so easily been quelled He that travelled all the Church from Britain to Jerusalem had he found any Church any received Doctor of any Church that durst maintain Salvation due by the Covenant of Grace to any man that dyes unbaptized he had made the Church more work then he did No Baptism no Original sin no Cure for Original sin but Baptism no Salvation without the Cure They that think to confute Anabaptists abating this point of Faith no marvel if they make Anabaptists when they make men think that the Church hath no better Reason to confute them with then they will use Some perhaps that are not so well taught as they should be may think it unagreeable with Christianity that Salvation should depend upon a Bodily act as the washing of Baptism and that in the Power not of him that is Baptized but of the Church or of him that is to minister in behalf of the Church But S. Peter hath answered this Objection by distinguishing two things in Baptism 1 Pet. III. 21. the one the washing of the Body which saves not The other the Answer that is made out of a good Conscience to the Examination tendered him that is Baptized whether he will undertake Christianity or not And this saves if S. Peter say true And what account can any Christian give himself to ground the hope of his Salvation upon but 〈◊〉 Christianity which the Gospel tendreth which Baptism inacteth Or what can be necessary to Salvation if the ground of the hope thereof be not This is that one ground which overthroweth both those Heresies in which I said all the erroneous Doctrines of that Confusion which we have seen do resolve The Profession which we make at our Baptism is the Condition on our part upon which the Promise of the Covenant of Grace becomes due on Gods part The Profession so made nothing can defeat the hope of a Christian but the transgressing of it Being transgressed nothing can repair this hope but the restoring of it All Arts to disguise this Faith all over the Scripture signifie nothing but the hope of Salvation without living the life of Christians I will hope whatsoever Fanaticks or Atheists would have that there was never any intent to demand so great an Apostasie from the Faith to be inacted by a Law of the Kingdom I will hope much more that had it been demanded it would have been rejected with that indignation which so great Apostasie deserveth But I am glad and give God hearty thanks that I have lived to the day when I may and do testifie to my Country and to the Church of God in it that he who should demand of them to renounce this point must demand of them to unchurch themselves and to be for the future that which the See of Rome would have us to be CHAP. XVIII Conference for Satisfaction is Forbearance BUt is there then no effect of S. Pauls precept in our Case Can we break the Unity of the Church without breading the Charity of Christians Or can particular Christians be tyed to forbear one another and Christian Powers not be tied to cause both to do the same Here is indeed the Hinge upon which the truth turns and resolves all questions and clears all difficulties which must and will intangle the World in confusion upon the account of Christianity till it be owned Christian Powers may constrain their Subjects that profess Christianity to be Christians and punish them if they be not But they must protect them for their Subjects though they be not The reason of this hath not been declared by the Reformation though they have just cause to complain and do as they have cause complain of the See of Rome for authorizing capital Penalties upon Hereticks Under that name they comprize also Schismaticks And Schismaticks in their language as also in the language of all that claim the Authority of the Church signifies all that maintain Communion apart though the Cause make the Crime before God But if S. Paul have Reason when he commands every Christian to continue in the Estate in which he was called to be a Christian then can no mans Life or Estate become forfeit for not being a Christian And much less for not being Orthodox but an Heretick If the Life or Estates of Subjects should Eschete to the Soveraign for not being Christians that temporal Dominion of Soveraigns must be founded upon the Grace they have to be Christians All such Right S. Paul disclaims and discharges But shall Soveraign Power that is Christian be therefore disabled to give Law to Subjects professing Christianity That is our Case the whole Kingdom professing Christianity though the Whole cannot so properly be said to profess the Reformation For the Reformation setled by Law we see is refused as well by those that separate from it for a Reformation of their own as by those that adhere to the See of Rome Shall the Soveraign then lose the Right that all Christian Soveraigns have of giving Law to their Subjects in point of Religion because he is a Christian Or shall the Subject by being a Christian stand obliged to the Laws of his Soveraign commanding him to stand to the Christianity which he professeth Suppose the Christianity commanded to be Visible before Christian Powers command it and you inable their Laws to oblige their Subjects Not supposing it you cannot say how the Laws of Soveraign Powers should oblige Christian Subjects seeing the Papacy as well as the Reformation maintained by Christian Soveraigns For by the same Reason for which the Subjects of those Powers that maintain the Reformation are tied to their Laws by the same Reason should the Subjects of those that maintain the Papacy be obliged to obey the Laws by which they maintain it There can be no Reason for a difference if that which they maintain be not Visible before the
was setled upon that Faith and those Laws that are now as Visible as the Laws of England from which present Titles are derived can be Visible must needs have that Right from which the Right of all present Soveraignties must be derived Because the Church whose Interest concurreth with the Interest of them all in the same matters is always One and the same and ought so to be from the first to the second Coming of Christ And that answers any difficulty that may be objected when any Law of any Roman Emperor or other Christian Prince or State seems to infringe the Canons of the Church For the Protection of the Crown being of such advantage as it is both for the inlarging and maintaining of Christianity It is enough that the Church can continue One and the same Visible Church by one and the same Visible Laws Though the force and effect of them be hindred now and then here and there by some Acts of Secular Power which in some regards may advance the Church as much as they hinder it in others It was necessary for the Crown under Henry the VIII to vindicate the Supremacy from the pretense of the Popes Secular Power which had been on foot divers Ages afore And therefore not to have to do with him that pretended to assoil the Subjects of Princes whom he should excommunicate of their Allegiance till they might owne him upon terms consistent with the Protection they owe their People And it was still more necessary under Edward the VI. when the Reformation was inacted which they knew well enough that the Pope would not endure But when the Right of the Crown in Church-matters is declared by Law to be the same which the Kings of Gods Ancient People and the first Christian Emperors did exercise the ground of that Interest and the bounds of that Interest which the Church must challenge if it will continue a Church are declared to be the same which the Faith and the Laws of the Whole Church from the beginning do allow CHAP. XXIII Of restoring and reforming the Jurisdictions of the Crown and of the Church in Ecclesiastical Causes ANd this makes the Reformation of our Ecclesiastical Laws as easie as it is visibly the cure of all distempers in Religion among us It is in brief this That the Jurisdiction which may by this means appear to the Kingdom to be invested in the Church by Gods Law be by a Law of the Kingdom restored to the Clergy To the Bishops in chief then to the Chapters of their Cathedrals and to their Archdeacons And to these not without the Assistance of the Principal Clergie of their Respective Jurisdictions the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Courts continuing the Kings Judges as they are now by Law to manage the Interest of the Crown in all the Rights thereof resumed into the Crown by the Acts of Supremacy according to the Roman Laws in those Ages of Christendom which passed before the Usurpation of the See of Rome had taken place If it be said That it is not Visible when those Usurpations took place I shall allow all the time which that Code of the Canons contains that Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great In whose time there can be no pretense of Usurpation upon the Temporalties of Princes by the See of Rome This Code is yet read under the Name of Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Romanae I have commended the Justice and Wisdom of that Commission which was designed under Henry the VIII and Edward the VI for the qualities of Persons limited by it But I do not think it possible for any Commission to Reform the Alterations introduced by the Popes Canon Law after that time in one Kings Raign with that circumspection which is requisite The Jurisdiction which the Church challenges by Gods Law can not be distinctly stated with more satisfaction to all Interests preserving that of Religion then by a Commission so qualified The Interest of the Kingdom in preserving the study of the Roman Laws hath always been thought considerable But how shall the study of them be maintained if the Authority of them be not maintained Or how shall that Authority be maintained but by adopting them into the Law of the Kingdom in matters necessary to be provided for by Law but not provided for by the native Law of the Kingdom Or what provision can there he by the native Law of the Kingdom for those Causes which for so many hundred years before the Reformation the Popes Canon Law had sentenced by the Authority of the Kingdom There is an Interest of Religion in Matrimonial Causes in Testamentary Causes in Causes arising upon Elections of Corporate Clergie in Causes of Dispensation in Canons in Causes of Tithes in divers sorts of Causes besides those which the Power of the Keys in the Discipline of the People and the Correction of Inferior Clergy occasioneth Let me not say that it were Barbarous for a flourishing Kingdom in a flourishing Age for all other Learning to reduce the Tryal of them to the Arbitrary Verdicts of Juries Who can never understand the Grounds upon which the matter of Fact is to be stated when I can so clearly say that there can be nothing more like to meer Tyranny then Arbitrary Justice nor Justice more Arbitrary then where it is manifest that there can have been no other Law provided because the Canon Law hath been hitherto used As for those Causes which are proper to the Church as rising from the Constitution of it how can it stand with Religion and Reformation in Religion which we pretend to try them otherwise then by those which the Kingdom shall be satisfied by such a Commission that they are by Gods Law capable of Authority to do it And the Interest of the Crown and of the Subjects which it is bound to protect shall be secured when provision is made by adopting the Roman Laws for managing the Rights of the Crown resumed by the Act of Supremacy within those Bounds which the Roman Laws maintained before the Usurpation of the See of Rome It cannot be denied that the Popes Canon Law which the Law of the Land hath already adopted so far as it contradicteth not the Law of the Land provideth for many things not provided for by the Primitive Canons within the Compass of the Roman Laws And it would be too much rashness to recal that Adoption and to leave so much matter to arbitrary Justice rather then retain a Provision which the Law and Religion professed by the Kingdom owns not the Original of though it owne the matter it hath adopted For whatsoever shall prove by time and tryal to hinder the Reformation which we pretend thus to ground and thus to bound the faults that shall be found by experience must open the way of mending it because the Cure must be as particular as the disease is And upon these Terms it can be no dishonour to the Kingdom and to the Reformation
man is not subject to God Such are the Invocations of Saints the Worshipping of their Reliques and Images the Pilgrimages and Indulgences commended or commanded by the See of Rome And such they may be owned to be by him that dare not undertake them to be that Idolatry that was punishable with death by the Law of Moses And being such it will be punishable in all who for an undue respect to the See of Rome will not have their fellow-subjects freed from superstitious customs Nor obey the Laws of their Country that give them this freedom But if this be the due Reason for which it is punishable the same Reason will render them punishable who think they serve God by running into Conventicles in despite of the Laws of God and their Country For what is that but a pretense of paying the debt of Religion which Christianity makes due to God by worshipping an Idol of their own setting up That is as I said afore by worshipping God according to an Imagination of their own erecting and not according to that which the common Christianity requires And thus I am come to the Conclusion which I intended without disputing whether or no the Papists by their Religion do exercise that Idolatry which is punishable by death in Moses Law For if capital Penalty lye not in our Case If it be agreed upon that they are punishable upon the same Ground for which the other sort of Recusants are punishable then is the way clear before me to proceed to declare what Penalties both sorts of Recusants are to be or may be punished with Supposing our Reformation confined within those Bounds which the Faith and the Laws of the Catholick Church either determine or allow CHAP. XXVIII All that take Arms against the Soveraign to Reform Religion may be liable to Capital Punishment BUt if the Papists cannot be liable to capital punishment as Idolaters neither can they be liable to it as limbs of Antichrist The name of Antichrist is a challenge of Soveraign Power Because the name of Christ is so Signifying a Prince and a Prophet raised and setled by Gods immediate Word which is the Soveraign Title For Antichrist can signifie nothing but a counterfeit Christ One that pretends to be Christ and is not Our Lord Christ being the Messias which the Fathers and Prophets from the beginning expected But the Soveraignty of Christ is declared by himself to be a meer Spiritual Soveraignty which all the Jews even the Apostles before our Lords death expected to be a temporal Kingdom And therefore whososoever it is that groundeth Soveraignty upon Christianity though he be not Antichrist for that yet is he the enemy of all Christian States for it And so are the Subjects of all Christian States that think themselves free of their Allegiance to Princes or States Excommunicated by the Pope And upon this account I deny not that Papists may become liable to capital punishment or to banishment with confiscation Which seems to be of the two the greater punishment But this neither common to all Papists nor proper to Papists alone For that this is not the Faith of all Papists I need no more then the distance between the Secular Priests and the Jesuits here to prove And that it is not proper to Papists alone I need no more then the Scottish Covenant and the troubles of the three Kingdoms upon it to prove And therefore it is a thing absolutely necessary to make those Penalties just which the Laws inflict upon the Papists that they distinguish between the Cause of Religion common to all and the Cause of them that make it a point of Religion to violate their Allegiance to a Soveraign deposed by the Pope Nay it will be necessary in point of Justice to impose the same Penalties upon all of all Religions that may think themselves discharged of their Allegiance upon any account of Religion whatsoever It is manifest that they who take Arms against their Soveraign to reform Religion do ground themselves upon the Title of Religion and think themselves tyed by their Christianity to do it As they who take Arms against their Prince deposed by the Pope think themselves tyed in Christianity to execute his Sentence Those whom the people follow in reforming Religion against the will of their Soveraign Those they make as much Judges in reforming Religion as the other do the Pope And all that refuse to secure their Soveraign by Oath that they will neither lead nor follow any man in reforming Religion without his Authority deserve to be out of the protection of that Sword which he weareth not in vain They fall into the Case of the Jews expecting the Messias For when they imagine that he is come they will think themselves dispensed with by their Religion for any Bond of Allegiance But Christian Princes and States are not wont so far as I know to think themselves secured by the Oath of Jews Let this be a difference which they make between Jews and Christians to take the Oath of their Christian Subjects for security of their Allegiance Because true Christianity obliges all good Christians to bear Allegiance to their Soveraigns not to be dispensed with upon any account of Christianity Notwithstanding we see that there are those that count themselves the best Christians that do think themselves dispensed with in their Allegiance upon divers and several accounts of their Christianity But let this Kingdom having had tryal of contrary pretenses think it self bound to declare the same Penalties against the same Crimes And able to impose the utmost Penalties upon all that shall refuse to secure their Soveraign by Oath of their Allegiance And since the allowance which the Law makes in understanding the Oath of Supremacy evidences that it may be understood in a sense offensive in point of Religion let it be thought time to antiquate the old and to inact a new form that may tye all Subjects as Subjects without pretense of offending any Religion by condemning all Religions that make difficulty to undertake it for irreligious CHAP. XXIX What Penalties the Protection of Religion requires NOw I am to say how far Christian Powers are to punish Hereticks and Schismaticks For it is too late for me to say that they may punish their Conventicles having declared the reason why they may do it And being now only to draw the consequence of that reason how far they are to do or may do it Here I must first marvel at our Independents some of whom have disputed in very good earnest that it is not lawful for Civil Powers to impose Penalties upon Religion Whereas the World knows that there never was any such Religion in the World as that of Independents before the planting of New England And that since those that framed Independent Congregations there upon a Covenant whereby they renounce One Catholick Church and One Baptism for Remission of Sins have not only banished Antinomians and put Quakers to