Church when they cannot make them of their Religion I doe not think that those Christianos nuevos those new Christians as they call them in Spain That is such as the Inquisition has made Christians of Mahumetans doe much love the Religion they turn to and much less those who turn them to it by employing Fire and Faggor These indeed are undeniable Evidences of cruelty in them that use them but slender Motives of credibility to beget belief in them that suffer by them And this way will not fail to multiply enemies instead of procuring friends to any Cause though never so good For as Persecution to the true Church is but as the Pruning to the Vine which gains in its bulk and fruit what it loseth in a few luxuriant branches lopt off so even Heresies themselves thrive by being prun'd too the cropping of these Weeds does but serve to thicken them the bloud of the Devil's Martyrs proves as much the Seed of his Synagogue as that of Gods Saints does of his Church and the destroying of the Persons of Hereticks supposing them such does but add life to their Cause And indeed what encouragement have Men to receive a Religion from their Oppressors or how can they think that they who torture and kill their Bodies are really concern'd to save their Souls And while the felicities of another World are recommended to them only by such as doe deprive them of all in this we cannot wonder at their little appetite to embrace them or to find the oppress'd Indians protest against that Heaven where the Spaniards are to be their Cohabitants Add we to all this That such Motives as these can never demonstrate Truth For how successfull soever their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true For by that argument it proves the Religion it goes about to settle true It proves that that which it destroys was true before while it prevailed and had the power And then such a testimony is given to the truth of Christianity which Heathenism had before and Turcism hath since And thus you see how all violent ways to propagate the Faith cannot be acceptable to God the Father as being directly contrary to his Nature and Will nor yet to his Son since they cross the very end and design of his coming into the World his Doctrine and Practice Fly in the very face of Religion it self and can never serve their turn who make use of it From all which it follows That they who pursue such ways neither know God the Father nor his Son Jesus Christ. I know what is commonly said by some who practice this way of compulsion in excuse and defence of it That many who serve God at first by compulsion may come after to serve him freely That these sorts of Conversions doe not augment the number of Saints but they diminish that of Hereticks That although some among them may prove bad Converts themselves yet they have Families to be saved that their Children may make good Christians and though the stock be naught yet the branches may be sanctified But the answer hereunto is easie That neither good Intents nor casual Events can justifie unreasonable Violence which instead of rendering Men orthodox Christians makes them rather Atheists Hypocrites and Formalists For being constrained to practice against Conscience they soon come at last to lose all Conscience Nor are Men to owe the Salvation of Souls to any unwarrantable proceedings because they must not doe any present evil in prospect of any future good This was another gross error of these persons in the Text as I am now to show you in the next place 2. The Jews here thought their Zeal to the Temple and their Ritual Observances so invincibly meritorious that no crime could defeat it And we see how apt many Christians are to ascribe so much to the force of a good meaning as if it were able to bear the stress and load of any sins that can be laid upon it A good purpose shall hallow all they doe and make them boldly rush into the most unchristian practices in prosecution of what some call The good old Cause others The Catholick Faith For how doe Men swallow down the deadliest Poyson Perjury Sacriledge Murther Regicide and the like in confidence of this their preservative and say grace over the foulest sins How many have made themselves Saints upon that account that would never have been such upon any other And how much Religion groans under the Reproach of all those Evils which zeal and good meanings have consecrated is notorious to all the World Men call the over-flowing of their gall Religion and value their Opinions so high and their eagerness in abetting them that they think the propagating of them so important a service to God as will justifie all they doe in order to this end Now not to speak of their Error in the choice of their Opinions That of many opposite one only can be the Right my present business shall be to shew you 1. The Impiety and 2. The Danger of this strong delusion in respect of that Malignant influence it has on Practice For the clearing of which two things we are to observe That to the making an Action good and warrantable these three things are requisite 1. A good Intention in the Doer 2. That the Matter of the Action be in it self good and 3. That it be rightly circumstantiated For a failure in either of these three things quite vitiates the whole Action 1. The first thing necessary to a good Action is a good Intention in the Doer This we learn from Matth. 6. 22. If thine Eye that is thy Intention for so Interpreters generally understand it be single thy whole Body shall be full of light Be the matter of an Action never so good yet if a Man's aim and intention in the doing of it be not so all is stark naught For Actus moralis specificatur ex fine And Finis dat speciem in moralibus And as the End is the first thing that sets an Agent a working so is it the last that perfects its work Nay so valuable in the sight of God is a good Intention where-ever it be found That as He sometimes prevents an evil Act in him in whom He discovers a good Intention as in Abimilech so does He sometimes reward a good Purpose tho' it proceeds not to act as in David T is true that a good End alone does not justifie any action but it is as true that there can be nothing good or tolerable without it And although a good meaning doth not wholly excuse yet an evil one wholly condemns it But then 2dly Besides a good Intention two things more are requisite to the making an Action good 1. That the Matter of it be such 2. That it be rightly circumstantiated 1. That the Matter thereof be good For our Intention as our zeal must be always in a good thing And a thing is then
leaving it and that which He hath purchased so very glorious that some have mistaken it for his Eternal one To all this which He hath obtained for Himself let us add what He hath merited for us in that flesh He this day took upon Him and wherein He wrought out our Redemption offering up Himself to God and giving Himself for us the greatest gift He could give or we receive whereof in the next place II. Who gave Himself for us Every word here has its weight 1. He gave 2. Gave Himself and 3. For us 1. He gave A Gift this as much above Man's Desert as 't was above his Comprehension 'T was a free gift too no Attractive here but misery no Motive but his own goodness The Romanists indeed to establish their rotten Doctrine of Merit will needs persuade us that some Ancient Fathers before and under the Law did ex congruo if not ex condigno merit Christ's Incarnation or at least the hastning of its accomplishment This conceit of theirs they mainly ground on Gen. 22. 18. where 't is said to Abraham In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Because thou hast obeyed my voice As if that Because denoted the meritorious Cause of Christ's Incarnation to have been Abraham's Obedience whereas Zachary ascribes it not to the Merits of any the most holy persons of old but to God's mercy and free promise to the Forefathers Luke 1. 72. St. Paul to the riches of God's mercy Ephes. 2. 4. To his benignity and loving-kindness to mankind here Tit. 3. 4. As our Lord Himself does also John 3. 16. God so loved the World that He gave his only begotten Son and so well did that his Son love it too that He gave Himself for us says the Text. 2. Himself And surely more He could not give For as the Apostle speaks in another case Because God could swear by no greater He sware by Himself So may we here because He had no greater thing to give us He gave us Himself The Almighty could go no higher than this Infinite goodness was here at its non ultra He who is All in All could bestow no more than that All. More then He could not give but could He not have given less and that less have been enough Or might not the party offended have freely remitted the Offence without any farther satisfaction or have obliged some other to make it Sent some glorious Creature some blessed Spirit of the noblest Order of created Beings to be a sufficient expiatory Sacrifice for Mankind and so have sav'd Himself the trouble of an Incarnation 'T is not for us here to be too inquisitive what God might have done let us rather admire and extoll his Goodness for not contenting Himself with less than what He did and withall dread the severity of his Justice not to be atton'd by any other Sacrifice than that of his own Son And indeed the most glorious the most innocent and perfect Creature God could make being but Finite it cannot possibly be conceived how it could satisfie an infinite Justice much less was it in the power of Man to satisfie for himself of the party guilty to expiate its own guilt This knot was too hard for any but a God to untie Nay the Godhead its self it seems could not doe it without the assistance of the Manhood For as the divine Nature could not suffer so the humane one could not merit This furnished the bloud but that made it passable and valuable None then but He who united both Natures in the Person of the word Incarnate He who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man could be a perfect Reconciler of both Parties This as his Justice and our Necessities required so his alone Goodness prompted him unto and his as infinite Wisedom found out the only way to doe it by taking our Nature upon Him and so giving Himself for us 3. For Us. This circumstance does yet very much heighten the Blessing and set off God's infinite Love to Mankind That He should give Himself for us us Sinners and Rebels and for us alone Were there no other Objects for his Mercy besides us Were there not Angels to be redeemed as well as Men Or were they not worth the Redeeming who were by Nature so much above them That God should pass by them and only vouchsafe to look upon us This is the great Mystery of his Love And that He did so is clear from Heb. 2. 16. Verily He took not on Him the Nature of Angels but He took on Him the Seed of Abraham whereupon He is called the Saviour of all Men but not of Angels 1 Tim. 4. 10. Whether it was because the sin of Angels had more of Wilfulness in it and less of Temptation or because they did not All fall as we did some of them still preserving their Station let the Schools dispute These may serve for plausible Conjectures but to find the true cause hereof we must go out of the World and seek it in the bosom of the Father and in the bowels of his own Son whose Love did even transform him into us this day whereon He was born for no other purpose but to dye for us and by his meritorious Death rescue us from the slavery of Sin the primary end of his Incarnation and the third Thing to be spoken to III. That He might redeem us For the better comprehending the benefit we reap from the Incarnation of our blessed Lord We must consider the main end and design of it which the Text says was to redeem us Now Redemption being a Relative supposes Bondage For we cannot say his Irons are struck off who never had them on or pronounce him releas'd who never was a prisoner Now such was all Mankind till Christ delivered it by taking upon Him the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men For as Aristotle hath made some men born slaves and as others tell us of a Law whereby all the Posterity of Captives were Bondmen So in Divinity 't is a certain truth that not some but all Mankind are born under the Fork and that the Womb of our first Parent was like that in Tacitus Subjectus servitio Uterus a Womb from which issues a race of Slaves Christ then found us in Captivity and that according to the Divinity of the Schools a threefold one 1. To Sin as the Merit obliging 2. To Death as the Reward or Punishment 3. To the Devil as to the Executioner And to each of these the Scripture hath assign'd a Dominion over us and that in terms of the greatest subjection and which in the conveyance of Power give the strongest Empire For the first St. Paul hath told us That we are the servants of Sin so far 't is our Master And in another place 't is said to reign in our mortal Bodies That makes it our Prince And indeed as some
remembrance again Joh. 14. 26. He admonisheth and directeth us his Clients how to order and solicit our own business what Evidences to produce how to manage and plead them making up our failings by his Wisdom and not only so but as the word Paraclete here imports he intercedeth also with God for us not in such a manner as Christ is said to doe whom St. John also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. For as much as that Bloud which He shed for us on the Cross speaks for us better things than that of Abel and continually pleads our Pardon before the Tribunal of God but the Holy Ghost is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered because he stirreth us up to Prayer prompting and teaching us also how to pray as we ought to doe in all our Necessities So that as Christ is the first Advocate by working our Reconciliation with God so is the Spirit our other or second one by testifying and applying the same unto our Souls 2dly He is our Advocate not only in respect of God but of Men too by maintaining our Cause against the World against Tyrants and Persecutors 1. Against the World as oft as it accuseth us by false and slanderous Calumniators laying to our charge things we never did The Spirit in this case maketh us not only plead our Innocency but rejoyce in the Reproaches of Christ count our selves happy in this that it is not such low marks as we are which the malice of the World aimeth at but the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon us who is on their part evil spoken of 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2dly Against Tyrants and Persecutors Whence it is that our Saviour Mat. 10. 19. bids his Disciples not be concern'd what they should speak when they should be delivered up to Men because it should be given them in that same hour what they should speak And he adds vers 20. It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And we know how that God in all Ages did by the mouths of Infants maintain his Truths to the shame and confusion of Tyrants who endeavour'd to suppress them But here it may be objected Was not the Holy Ghost given to the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ Did He not comfort and support them under a long and tedious expectation of his appearance Was He not then a Teacher of the Faithfull and when that Cloud of Witnesses suffered for the Cause of the God of Jacob when they were sawn in pieces and stoned was not the Holy Ghost their Advocate as well as the Martyrs under the Gospel Did He not speak by the Mouth of Daniel when cast to the Lions and of the three Children who chanted out the Praises of God in the midst of the flames of the firey furnace How then does our Lord say here If I go not away the Comforter will not come to you since so many Ages before He was come and as a Comforter too For Resolution hereof we are to observe That although the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity be equally the Principles of all those Acts they produce without according to the received Maxim of the Schools yet with a considerable difference in relation to those three distinct Oeconomies or Dispensations towards the Church That of the Father lasted till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh yet so as that in that space of time 't is generally believed that the Son of God did sometimes appear as to Abraham Jacob and Joshua being a kind of Essay or Prelude to his Incarnation and the Holy Ghost did then also impart some degree of Efficacy to the Faithfull However This is properly to be reckoned the Oeconomy of the Father The second was That of the Son from his Incarnation to his Ascension yet so as that the Father made his voice to be heard at Jordan and Mount Tabor This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye Him As at another time in the Audience of the People Joh. 12. 28. I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again Then also did the Holy Ghost appear in the form of a Dove yet still this is to be accounted the Oeconomy of the Son That of the Holy Spirit commenced from his Descent upon the Apostles and shall last unto the end of all things Differing herein from the other two That in the two first Dispensations Men's senses were usually affected with some extraordinary miraculous and sensible Objects God the Father shewing himself in a Cloud and Pillar of Fire giving out his Oracles from between the Cherubins consuming the burnt-offerings with Fire from Heaven and filling the Sanctuary with his Glory And the Son of God conversing so familiarly with Men that it made St. John say That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you Whereas I say All was as it were visible and palpable here 'T was far otherwise in the Dispensation of the Spirit The Heavens were not seen to part nor was God's terrible Voice heard in the Air no Shechinah no Glory or sensible Mark of the Presence of the living God in his Temple For which reason the third Person in the Trinity has the Special Name of Spirit given Him For as He is styled Holy in respect of that Sanctification he worketh in us though that same Title belongs also to the other two Persons as having the same Spiritual Essence yet the Holy Ghost bears the name of Spirit in regard of his altogether Spiritual Dispensation and those Graces he imparts to each faithfull Soul which are Heavenly and Spiritual such as are the Knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven and his inward Vertues and Consolations As for Knowledge it was so weak and imperfect under the Ancient Oeconomy that in respect of that our Lord preferrs the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the meanest Christian to all the Prophets not excepting the Baptist himself Nor can it be deny'd but that the very first Principles and Rudiments of Christianity do far surpass the highest Attainments of the Law The Jews were under a Cloud and the Doctrine of the Prophets was but as a light shining in a dark place All was then Shadow or rather Night and Moses his Veil was over the Eyes of the whole Nation God made himself known to the Jews as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom They had a very wrong Notion looking upon him as the Conqueror of the World such was the very Apostle's fancy of him and that even after his Resurrection Act. 1. The ineffable Mystery of the Trinity that of Godliness which without controversie is great God manifested
brought forth with Garlands on their heads in manner of Sacrifices and offered up to Neptune being termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Suidas tells us that for the removal of the Pestilence they sacrificed certain Men to their Gods whom they styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filth loading them with revilings and curses Such were all Christians accounted among Heathens who lookt upon them as the vilest sort of men upon Earth fit to be offered in Sacrifice to their Gods For 1. They thought them guilty of the highest immoralities and debaucheries adultery incestuous copulations murthering and eating their own Children in their nocturnal private Assemblies and then no marvel if they thought their utmost severity towards them to be an act of Justice and of Religion too as being in their apprehension the Causes of all those publick Calamities that befell the World 2. They look'd upon them as profane atheistical men and so worthy to die because they did not worship the heathen Deities nor had any Altars or Temples For so the Charge runs against them in Tertullian Deos non colitis and in Minutius Felix Nullas aras habent Christiani nulla templa Nay They look'd upon Christians as Affronters of the Gods and of Religion That laugh'd at their Sacrifices despised their Temples and threw down their Altars and Images And hence they passed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists as Socrates did who was thought to believe that there was no God because he had a very mean opion of those the World then worshipped The very same crime objected to Christians of being of no Religion because they would not embrace the heathenish Superstition So the Pagans in Arnobius Christus ex orbe religiones expulit Their Master Christ had driven all Religions out of the World He had indeed destroyed all those false worships the besotted World ran after together with their ridiculous abominable Deities having silenced their Oracles and forc'd those Gods they worshipped to confess themselves to be no other than Devils As his Disciples and primitive Christians could and did frequently drive them out of those bodies they possessed which was such an affront to their Gods as Heathens were not able to endure and thought themselves concern'd to vindicate by the utmost severity that either wit or malice helpt on by the Devil himself could find out And then 3ly What Cruelties think we were left unexercised upon Men who besides the ruine of their Religion had in their apprehension designs against the State too and where-ever they were were thought still to endeavour the undermining of their Empire Which though it was a pure groundless calumny yet the Apostles finding this apprehension so deeply rooted in their minds thought it necessary earnestly to press subjection to heathenish Princes and Governours to take off this foul aspersion And the rather because the malicious Jews did still labour strongly to possess all in Authority with such an opinion of them as if they were Enemies as well to their State as to their Religion Thus Christ himself was accused of perverting the Nation of forbidding to give Tribute to Cesar and of saying that He Himself was a King Luk. 23. 2. St. Paul of being a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world Act. 24. 5. And the Charge was general against all the Apostles That they had turned the world upside down Chap. 17. v. 6. Calumnies invented and fostered by the Jews It being expresly said Chap. 14. vers 2. That the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren envenoming them with hatred and prejudice against them as People hating their Government as well as their Worship though in effect none did it more than the very Jews themselves There is no doubt but that Interest as well as Religion set Heathens so much against Christians and the latter not the least For besides that they had been in a long and uninterrupted Possession of their idolatrous way of worship and so thought themselves to have the advantage of time over Christians who were in their account but Upstarts They could not digest such an absurd Religion as did teach that a crucified Man could be a God And so morose and strict a one as not to allow them their old luxury hatred pride envy and all those abominations whereof their very Religion was made up nor suffer them to be as wicked as they desired and the Devil would have them to be And therefore by the insinuations of his chief Instruments the Priests who were undone if this new way should prevail did he labour to root them out from off the face of the Earth as a most pestilent sort of people A work in their opinion very meritorious as no doubt it was to their Gods And therefore Suetonius in the Life of Nero amongst other good things done by him reckons Persecutiones contra Christianos factas And that bloudy Tyrant and Persecutor Dioclesian in an Inscription engraven on a Monument he had set up makes his brags that he had purged the Earth of the Christian Nation abolished the Christian Name in all parts of his Empire and propagated the worship of the Gods Superstitione Christianorum ubique deletâ cultu Deorum propagato Wherein he reckoned without his host having to his great grief and sorrow liv'd to see the ruine of Heathenism and the establishment of Christianity by Constantine which did so enrage Julian the Apostate that finding all his Arts to destroy the Faith ineffectual he vowed that if he sped in his Expedition against the Persians he would at his return offer up the bloud of all Christians to his Gods And thus you see our Saviour's prediction verified in respect of Jews and Heathens and what were the grounds and motives of their hatred and rage against Christians blind zeal blended with worldly Interest which made them think that by persecuting them to death they did God service 3. But we are not to confine our Lord's prediction wholly to the Jews and Gentiles but to extend it even to Christians themselves who have verified it in its most rigorous and worst sense And truly 't is a sad thing to consider how no sooner Jews and Heathens had laid down the quarrel but that Christians took it up carrying it on against themselves with as much heat and fury as ever the former had done The mutual Contests between them even in the earlier times of the Gospel were so bitter and intemperate so fierce and bloudy too that they have been objected to them by Pagans and derided in their open Theatres Clemens Alexandrinus bringeth in Heathens upbraiding them with their quarrels And Ammianus Marcellinus a heathen Author hath observ'd long since That no Beasts were so cruel to one another as Christians in his time were And there was but too much ground for his observation when he could see them not only reviling and libelling as
crosseth the very end and design of his Coming into the world and is expresly contrary to his Doctrine and Example 2. Because it is a very improper way to advance Religion by And 3. Such as does not serve their purpose who make use of it which is To gain Proselytes to their Cause 1. I say It crosseth the very end c. For as God the Father was not in the whirlwind but in the still voice so his Son 's coming into the world is said to be like rain coming down into a fleece of wooll scarce to be heard He shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets says the Prophet Esay speaking of Christ ch 42. v. 1. His behaviour was to be mild and gentle not boisterous and clamorous such a way becoming Him who was the Prince of Peace whose business it was to reconcile men to God and to themselves and who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them He tells us indeed in one place that He came not to send peace on earth but a sword Matt. 10. 34. or as it is in St. Luke ch 12. v. 51. divisions yea and such divisions as should set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother v. 35. that is He foresaw what would be the event of his coming That the nearest Relations would hate and persecute one another to death upon the score of Religion That different pretences thereunto would separate those whom nature and bloud had most closely link'd together That none here would pardon less than they who were by nature obliged to love most And we see how sharp-edged this Sword has always proved even to the cutting asunder all natural and civil tyes and obligations so that a man's greatest foes are many times those of his own houshold Now this was no natural but an accidental effect of Christ's coming and of that Doctrine He brought with Him whose proper character it is to be pure and then peaceable Jam. 3. 17. mild and gentle not like the Law a killing letter much less like Draco's Laws writ in bloud but admirably fitted for the perfecting men's Natures and the sweetning of their Tempers and Spirits and calculated for the peace and order of the World which how inconsistent it is with those violent ways of Excommunications and Murthers some Men practice against such as differ from them never so little in opinion in matters of Religion I cannot see Nor indeed can I find any thing in the Gospel in the Doctrine or Practice either of Christ Himself or of his Apostles to authorize or countenance any such violent proceedings but enough to condemn them When an enemy had sown Tares in the field and some over-hasty people were presently for plucking them up our Lord we see forbids them and will have them both grow up together till the harvest when God should make the separation Matth. 13. 28 29 30. So when the Disciples would call down fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans who were both Schismaticks and Hereticks He checks them for it telling them That they knew not what Spirit they were of Luk. 9. 54 55. That however the doing so might suit with the firey temper of Elias it did not at all with that of his Disciples It is not for Christianity to assume a power to inflict itself nor is it commissionated to plant it self with violence or to destroy all that refuse or oppose it If it be to be writ in bloud 't is in that of its own Confessors only as it was in that of its Author whose practice was as mild and gentle herein as his doctrine For when some of his Disciples being scandalized at the eating of his flesh went back and walked no longer with Him which was direct Apostasie does He use any menaces or force to reduce them No He leaves them to themselves and only cautions his Disciples to beware of their pernicious Example by gently expostulating with them Will ye also go away Joh. 6. 67. And when He afterward sent out those his Disciples to convert the World He sent them forth as Lambs among Wolves Luk. 10. 3. which does not found like a Commission to tear and worry them that would not come into the flock but rather to be torn and worried by them Their Commission was to preach the Cross not to inflict it And when any City would not receive their Doctrine all they were to doe in such a case was only to shake off the dust of their feet against it That is to suffer nothing of theirs to cleave unto them to have nothing more to doe with them but to leave them to their own ways and to God's judgment How well our Modern Apostles have copied out this Doctrine and these Examples I leave it to all the World to judge Surely those qualifications which St. Paul requires in the servants of the Lord not to strive but to be gentle unto all men and in meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. are not to be found in them who now call themselves Converters who carry the Gospel in one hand and a Sword in the other That if Men will not receive That into their Heads They shall be sure to have This sheath'd in their Bowels 2. But this as it is a most unchristian so is it a very improper way to advance Religion by it being impossible to settle That by violence which cannot be forc'd and where 't is forc'd 't is not Religion The Understandings and Wills of Men are not to be bound with the same fetters their Bodies are The Apostle indeed says There is a way of bringing every thought into Captivity to the obedience of Christ but he tells us withall that the weapons by which that victory is obtained are not carnal 2 Cor. 10. 4. One may as well invade and think to get a conquest over thoughts and chain up a mind as force a Man to will against his own will Not whole Armies can besiege ones Reason nor Cannons batter his Will Religion is seated in those Faculties to which outward force can have no access The Sword hath no Propriety that way Silence it may but it can never convince and rather breed an aversion and abhorrence of that Religion whose first address is in bloud and rapine For 3ly It is certain that all compulsion here gains nothing to any Cause but the infamy of those rigours that are used to promote it Outward force may make a Man more a Hypocrite than he was before but never more a Convert It may tye up his Tongue or his Hand not change his Heart make him perhaps dissemble his Opinion but never constrain him to alter it And what is the advantage that is got by such Proselytes who shall still bear an Enemies heart towards those who force them outwardly to profess what inwardly they abhor and to be of their