2 Cor. 10. of which anon and think weakly that the church of God cannot long subsist but in a bodilie fear for want of other prooff will needs wrest that place of S. Paul Rom. 13. to set up civil inquisition and give power to the magistrate both of civil judgment and punishment in causes ecclesiastical But let us see with what strength of argument Let every soul be subject to the higher powers First how prove they that the apostle means other powers then such as they to whom he writes were then under who medld not at all in ecclesiastical causes unless as tyrants and persecuters and from them I hope they will not derive either the right of magistrates to judge in spiritual things or the dutie of such our obedience How prove they next that he intitles them here to spiritual causes from whom he witheld as much as in him lay the judging of civil 1 Cor. 6.1 c. If he himself appeald to Cesar it was to judge his innocence not his religion For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil then are they not a terror to conscience which is the rule or judge of good works grounded on the scripture But heresie they say is reck'nd among evil works Gal. 5.20 as if all evil works were to be punishd by the magistrate wherof this place thir own citation reck'ns up besides heresie a sufficient number to confute them uncleanness wantonness enmitie strife emulations animosities contentions envyings all which are far more manifest to be judgd by him then heresie as they define it and yet I suppose they will not subject these evil works nor many more such like to his cognisance and punishment Wilt thou then not be affraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same This shews that religious matters are not here meant wherin from the power here spoken of they could have no praise For he is the minister of God to thee for good true but in that office and to that end and by those means which in this place must be cleerly found if from this place they intend to argue And how for thy good by forcing oppressing and insnaring thy conscience Many are the ministers of God and thir offices no less different then many none more different then state and church-government Who seeks to govern both must needs be worse then any lord prelat or church-pluralist for he in his own facultie and profession the other not in his own and for the most part not throughly understood makes himself supream lord or pope of the church as far as his civil jurisdiction stretches and all the ministers of God therin his ministers or his curates rather in the function onely not in the government while he himself assumes to rule by civil power things to be rul'd only by spiritual when as this very chapter v. 6 appointing him his peculiar office which requires utmost attendance forbids him this worse then church-plurality from that full and waightie charge wherin alone he is the minister of God attending continually on this very thing To little purpose will they here instance Moses who did all by immediate divine direction no nor yet Asa Iehosaphat or Iosia who both might when they pleasd receive answer from God and had a commonwealth by him deliverd them incorporated with a national church exercis'd more in bodily then in spiritual worship so as that the church might be calld a commonwealth and the whole commonwealth a church nothing of which can be said of Christianitie deliverd without the help of magistrates yea in the midst of thir opposition how little then with any reference to them or mention of them save onely of our obedience to thir civil laws as they countnance good and deterr evil which is the proper work of the magistrate following in the same verse and shews distinctly wherin he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil But we must first know who it is that doth evil the heretic they say among the first Let it be known then certainly who is a heretic and that he who holds opinions in religion professdly from tradition or his own inventions and not from Scipture but rather against it is the only heretic and yet though such not alwaies punishable by the magistrate unless he do evil against a a civil Law properly so calld hath been already prov'd without need of repetition But if thou do that which is evil be affraid To do by scripture and the gospel according to conscience is not to do evil if we therof ought not to be affraid he ought not by his judging to give cause causes therfore of Religion are not here meant For he beareth not the sword in vain Yes altogether in vain if it smite he knows not what if that for heresie which not the church it self much less he can determine absolutely to be so if truth for error being himself so often fallible he bears the sword not in vain only but unjustly and to evil Be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake how for conscience sake against conscience By all these reasons it appeers planely that the apostle in this place gives no judgment or coercive power to magistrates neither to those then nor these now in matters of religion and exhorts us no otherwise then he exhorted those Romans It hath now twice befaln me to assert through Gods assistance this most wrested and vexd place of scripture heretofore against Salmasius and regal tyranie over the state now against Erastus and state-tyranie over the church If from such uncertain or rather such improbable grounds as these they endue magistracie with spiritual judgment they may as well invest him in the same spiritual kinde with power of utmost punishment excommunication and then turn spiritual into corporal as no worse authors did then Chrysostom Ierom and Austin whom Erasmus and others in thir notes on the New Testament have cited to interpret that cutting off which S. Paul wishd to them who had brought back the Galatians to circumcision no less then the amercement of thir whole virilitie and Grotius addes that this concising punishment of circumcisers became a penal law therupon among the Visigothes a dangerous example of beginning in the spirit to end so in the flesh wheras that cutting off much likelier seems meant a cutting off from the church not unusually so termd in scripture and a zealous imprecation not a command But I have mentiond this passage to shew how absurd they often prove who have not learnd to distinguish rightly between civil power and ecclesiastical How many persecutions then imprisonments banishments penalties and stripes how much bloodshed have the forcers of conscience to answer for and protestants rather then papists For the papist judging by his principles punishes them who beleeve not as the church beleevs though against the scripture but the protestant
kingdoms are maintaind all by force onely and yet disproves not that a Christian common-wealth may defend it self against outward force in the cause of religion as well as in any other though Christ himself coming purposely to dye for us would not be so defended 1 Cor. 1.27 God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty Then surely he hath not chosen the force of this world to subdue conscience and conscientious men who in this world are counted weakest but rather conscience as being weakest to subdue and regulate force his adversarie not his aide or instrument in governing the church 2 Cor. 10.3 4 5 6. for though we walk in the flesh we do not warre after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mightie through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and everie high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivitie everie thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to aveng all disobedience It is evident by the first and second verses of this chapter that the apostle here speaks of that spiritual power by which Christ governs his church how all sufficient it is how powerful to reach the conscience and the inward man with whom it chiefly deals and whom no power els can deal with In comparison of which as it is here thus magnificently describ'd how uneffectual and weak is outward force with all her boistrous tooles to the shame of those Christians and especially those churchmen who to the exercising of church discipline never cease calling on the civil magistrate to interpose his fleshlie force an argument that all true ministerial and spiritual power is dead within them who think the gospel which both began and spread over the whole world for above three hundred years under heathen and persecuting emperors cannot stand or continue supported by the same divine presence and protection to the worlds end much easier under the defensive favor onely of a Christian magistrate unless it be enacted and settled as they call it by the state a statute or a state-religion and understand not that the church it self cannot much less the state settle or impose one tittle of religion upon our obedience implicit but can only recommend or propound it to our free and conscientious examination unless they mean to set the state higher then the church in religion and with a grosse contradiction give to the state in thir settling petition that command of our implicit beleef which they deny in thir setled confession both to the state and to the church Let them cease then to importune and interrupt the magistrate from attending to his own charge in civil and moral things the settling of things just things honest the defence of things religious settled by the churches within themselves and the repressing of thir contraries determinable by the common light of nature which is not to constrain or to repress religion probable by scripture but the violaters and persecuters therof of all which things he hath anough and more then anough to do left yet undon for which the land groans and justice goes to wrack the while let him also forbear force where he hath no right to judge for the conscience is not his province least a worse woe arrive him for worse offending then was denounc'd by our Saviour Matt. 23.23 against the Pharises ye have forc'd the conscience which was not to be forc'd but judgment and mercy ye have not executed this ye should have don and the other let alone And since it is the councel and set purpose of God in the gospel by spiritual means which are counted weak to overcom all power which resists him let them not go about to do that by worldly strength which he hath decreed to do by those means which the world counts weakness least they be again obnoxious to that saying which in another place is also written of the Pharises Luke 7.30 that they frustrated the councel of God The main plea is and urgd with much vehemence to thir imitation that the kings of Iuda as I touchd before and especially Iosia both judgd and us'd force in religion 2 Chr. 34.33 he made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord thir God an argument if it be well weighed worse then that us'd by the false prophet Shemaia to the high priest that in imitation of Iehojada he ought to put Ieremie in the stocks Ier. 29.24 26 c. for which he receivd his due denouncement from God But to this besides I return a three-fold answer first that the state of religion under the gospel is far differing from what it was under the law then was the state of rigor childhood bondage and works to all which force was not unbefitting now is the state of grace manhood freedom and faith to all which belongs willingness and reason not force the law was then written on tables of stone and to be performd according to the letter willingly or unwillingly the gospel our new covnant upon the heart of every beleever to be interpreted only by the sense of charitie and inward perswasion the law had no distinct government or governors of church and commonwealth but the Priests and Levites judg'd in all causes not ecclesiastical only but civil Deut. 17.8 c. which under the gospel is forbidden to all church-ministers as a thing which Christ thir master in his ministerie disclam'd Luke 12.14 as a thing beneathe them 1 Cor. 6.4 and by many of our statutes as to them who have a peculiar and far differing government of thir own If not why different the governors why not church-ministers in state-affairs as well as state-ministers in church-affairs If church and state shall be made one flesh again as under the law let it be withall considerd that God who then joind them hath now severd them that which he so ordaining was then a lawfull conjunction to such on either side as join again what he hath severd would be nothing now but thir own presumptuous fornication Secondly the kings of Iuda and those magistrates under the law might have recours as I said before to divine inspiration which our magistrates under the gospel have not more then to the same spirit which those whom they force have oft times in greater measure then themselves and so instead of forcing the Christian they force the Holy Ghost and against that wise forewarning of Gamaliel fight against God Thirdly those kings and magistrates us'd force in such things only as were undoubtedly known and forbidden in the law of Moses idolatrie and direct apostacie from that national and strict enjoind worship of God wherof the corporal punishment was by himself expressly set down but magistrates under the gospel our free elective and rational worship are most commonly busiest to force those things which in the gospel are either left free nay somtimes
taken scandal not a given To heal one conscience we must not wound another and men must be exhorted to beware of scandals in Christian libertie not forc'd by the magistrate least while he goes about to take away the scandal which is uncertain whether given or taken he take away our liberty which is the certain and the sacred gift of God neither to be touchd by him nor to be parted with by us None more cautious of giving scandal then St. Paul Yet while he made himself servant to all that he might gain the more he made himself so of his own accord was not made so by outward force testifying at the same time that he was free from all men 1 Cor. 9.19 and therafter exhorts us also Gal. 5.13 ye were calld to libertie c. but by love serve one another then not by force As for that fear least prophane and licentious men should be encourag'd to omit the performance of religious and holy duties how can that care belong to the civil magistrate especially to his force For if prophane and licentious persons must not neglect the performance of religious and holy duties it implies that such duties they can perform which no Protestant will affirm They who mean the outward performance may so explane it and it will then appeer yet more planely that such performance of religious and holy duties especialy by prophane and licentious persons is a dishonoring rather then a worshiping of God and not only by him not requir'd but detested Prov. 21.27 the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked minde To compell therfore the prophane to things holy in his prophaneness is all one under the gospel as to have compelld the unclean to sacrifise in his uncleanness under the law And I adde withall that to compell the licentious in his licentiousness and the conscientious against his conscience coms all to one tends not to the honor of God but to the multiplying and the aggravating of sin to them both We read not that Christ ever exercis'd force but once and that was to drive prophane ones out of his temple not to force them in and if thir beeing there was an offence we finde by many other scriptures that thir praying there was an abomination and yet to the Jewish law that nation as a servant was oblig'd but to the gospel each person is left voluntarie calld only as a son by the preaching of the word not to be driven in by edicts and force of arms For if by the apostle Rom. 12.1 we are beseechd as brethren by the mercies of God to present our bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is our reasonable service or worship then is no man to be forc'd by the compulsive laws of men to present his body a dead sacrifice and so under the gospel most unholy and unacceptable because it is his unreasonable service that is to say not only unwilling but unconscionable But if prophane and licentious persons may not omit the performance of holy duties why may they not partake of holy things why are they prohibited the Lords supper since both the one and the other action may be outward and outward performance of dutie may attain at least an outward participation of benefit The church denying them that communion of grace and thanksgiving as it justly doth why doth the magistrate compell them to the union of performing that which they neither truly can being themselves unholy and to do seemingly is both hatefull to God and perhaps no less dangerous to perform holie duties irreligiously then to receive holy signes or sacraments unworthily All prophane and licentious men so known can be considerd but either so without the church as never yet within it or departed thence of thir own accord or excommunicate if never yet within the church whom the apostle and so consequently the church have naught to do to judge as he professes 1 Cor. 5.12 them by what autoritie doth the magistrate judge or which is worse compell in relation to the church if departed of his own accord like that lost sheep Luke 15.4 c. the true church either with her own or any borrowd force worries him not in again but rather in all charitable manner sends after him and if she finde him layes him gently on her shoulders bears him yea bears his burdens his errors his infirmities any way tolerable so fulfilling the law of Christ Gal. 6.2 if excommunicate whom the church hath bid go out in whose name doth the magistrate compell to go in The church indeed hinders none from hearing in her publick congregation for the doors are open to all nor excommunicates to destruction but as much as in her lies to a final saving Her meaning therfore must needs bee that as her driving out brings on no outward penaltie so no outward force or penaltie of an improper and only a destructive power should drive in again her infectious sheep therfore sent out because infectious and not driven in but with the danger not only of the whole and sound but also of his own utter perishing Since force neither instructs in religion nor begets repentance or amendment of life but on the contrarie hardness of heart formalitie hypocrisie and as I said before everie way increase of sin more and more alienates the minde from a violent religion expelling out and compelling in and reduces it to a condition like that which the Britains complain of in our storie driven to and fro between the Picts and the sea If after excommunion he be found intractable incurable and will not hear the church he becoms as one never yet within her pale a heathen or a publican Mat. 18.17 not further to be judgd no not by the magistrate unless for civil causes but left to the final sentence of that judge whose coming shall be in flames of fire that Maran athaà 1 Cor. 16.22 then which to him so left nothing can be more dreadful and ofttimes to him particularly nothing more speedie that is to say the Lord cometh In the mean while deliverd up to Satan 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20 that is from the fould of Christ and kingdom of grace to the world again which is the kingdom of Satan and as he was receivd from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Acts 26.18 so now deliverd up again from light to darkness and from God to the power of Satan yet so as is in both places manifested to the intent of saving him brought sooner to contrition by spiritual then by any corporal severitie But grant it belonging any way to the magistrate that prophane and licentious persons omit not the performance of holy duties which in them were odious to God even under the law much more now under the gospel yet ought his care both as a magistrate and a Christian to be much more that conscience be not inwardly violated
us but the illumination of the Holy Spirit so interpreting that scripture as warrantable only to our selves and to such whose consciences we can so perswade can have no other ground in matters of religion but only from the scriptures And these being not possible to be understood without this divine illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in any other it follows cleerly that no man or body of men in these times can be the infallible judges or determiners in matters of religion to any other mens consciences but thir own And therfore those Beroeans are commended Act. 17.11 who after the preaching even of S. Paul searchd the scriptures daily whether those things were so Nor did they more then what God himself in many places commands us by the same apostle to search to try to judge of these things our selves And gives us reason also Gal. 6.4 5. let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burden If then we count it so ignorant and irreligious in the papist to think himself dischargd in Gods account beleeving only as the church beleevs how much greater condemnation will it be to the protestant his condemner to think himself justified beleeving only as the state beleevs With good cause therfore it is the general consent of all sound protestant writers that neither traditions councels nor canons of any visibie church much less edicts of any magistrate or civil session but the scripture only can be the final judge or rule in matters of religion and that only in the conscience of every Christian to himself Which protestation made by the first publick reformers of our religion against the imperial edicts of Charls the fifth imposing church-traditions without scripture gave first beginning to the name of Protestant and with that name hath ever bin receivd this doctrine which preferrs the scripture before the church and acknowledges none but the Scripture sole interpreter of it self to the conscience For if the church be not sufficient to be implicitly beleevd as we hold it is not what can there els be nam'd of more autoritie then the church but the conscience then which God only is greater 1 Ioh. 3.20 But if any man shall pretend that the scripture judges to his conscience for other men he makes himself greater not only then the church but also then the scripture then the consciences of other men a presumption too high for any mortal since every true Christian able to give a reason of his faith hath the word of God before him the promisd Holy Spirit and the minde of Christ within him 1 Cor. 2.16 a much better and safer guide of conscience which as far as concerns himself he may far more certainly know then any outward rule impos'd upon him by others whom he inwardly neither knows nor can know at least knows nothing of them more sure then this one thing that they cannot be his judges in religion 1 Cor. 2.15 the spiritual man judgeth all things but he himself is judgd of no man Chiefly for this cause do all true protestants account the pope antichrist for that he assumes to himself this infallibilitie over both the conscience and the scripture siting in the temple of God as it were opposite to God and exalting himself above all that is called god or is worshipd 2 Thess. 2.4 That is to say not only above all judges and magistrates who though they be calld gods are far beneath infallible but also above God himself by giving law both to the scripture to the conscience and to the spirit it self of God within us When as we finde Iames 4.12 there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy who art thou that judgest another That Christ is the only lawgiver of his church and that it is here meant in religious matters no well grounded Christian will deny Thus also S. Paul Rom. 14.4 who art thou that judgest the servant of another to his own Lord he standeth or falleth but he shall stand for God is able to make him stand As therfore of one beyond expression bold and presumptuous both these apostles demand who art thou that presum'st to impose other law or judgment in religion then the only lawgiver and judge Christ who only can save and can destroy gives to the conscience And the forecited place to the Thessalonians by compar'd effects resolvs us that be he or they who or wherever they be or can be they are of far less autoritie then the church whom in these things as protestants they receive not and yet no less antichrist in this main point of antichristianism no less a pope or popedom then he at Rome if not much more by setting up supream interpreters of scripture either those doctors whom they follow or which is far worse themselves as a civil papacie assuming unaccountable supremacie to themselves not in civil only but ecclesiastical causes Seeing then that in matters of religion as hath been prov'd none can judge or determin here on earth no not church-governors themselves against the consciences of other beleevers my inference is or rather not mine but our Saviours own that in those matters they neither can command nor use constraint lest they run rashly on a pernicious consequence forewarnd in that parable Mat. 13. from the 26 to the 31 verse least while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them Let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers Gather ye together first the tares c. whereby he declares that this work neither his own ministers nor any els can discerningly anough or judgingly perform without his own immediat direction in his own fit season and that they ought till then not to attempt it Which is further confirmd 2 Cor. 1.24 not that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy If apostles had no dominion or constraining power over faith or conscience much less have ordinary ministers 1 Pet. 5.2 3. feed the flock of God not by constraint c. neither as being lords over Gods heritage But some will object that this overthrows all church-discipline all censure of errors if no man can determin My answer is that what they hear is plane scripture which forbids not church-sentence or determining but as it ends in violence upon the conscience unconvinc'd Let who so will interpret or determin so it be according to true church-discipline which is exercis'd on them only who have willingly joind themselves in that covnant of union and proceeds only to a separation from the rest proceeds never to any corporal inforcement or forfeture of monie which in spiritual things are the two arms of Antichrist not of the true church the one being an inquisition the other no
abolishd when by them compelld or els controverted equally by writers on both sides and somtimes with odds on that side which is against them By which means they either punish that which they ought to favor and protect or that with corporal punishment and of thir own inventing which not they but the church hath receivd command to chastise with a spiritual rod only Yet some are so eager in thir zeal of forcing that they refuse not to descend at length to the utmost shift of that parabolical prooff Luke 14.16 c. compell them to come in therfore magistrates may compell in religion As if a parable were to be straind through every word or phrase and not expounded by the general scope therof which is no other here then the earnest expression of Gods displeasure on those recusant Jewes and his purpose to preferre the gentiles on any terms before them expressd here by the word compell But how compells he doubtless no otherwise then he draws without which no man can come to him Ioh. 6.44 and that is by the inward perswasive motions of his spirit and by his ministers not by the outward compulsions of a magistrate or his officers The true people of Christ as is foretold Psal. 110.3 are a willing people in the day of his power then much more now when he rules all things by outward weakness that both his inward power and their sinceritie may the more appeer God loveth a chearfull giver then certainly is not pleasd with an unchearfull worshiper as the verie words declare of his euangelical invitations Esa. 55.1 ho everie one that thirsteth come Ioh. 7.37 if any man thirst Rev. 3.18 I counsel thee and 22.17 whosoever will let him take the water of life freely And in that grand commission of preaching to invite all nations Marc 16.16 as the reward of them who come so the penaltie of them who come not is only spiritual But they bring now some reason with thir force which must not pass unanswerd that the church of Thyatira was blam'd Rev. 2.20 for suffering the false prophetess to teach and to seduce I answer that seducement is to be hinderd by fit and proper means ordaind in church-discipline by instant and powerfull demonstration to the contrarie by opposing truth to error no unequal match truth the strong to error the weak though slie and shifting Force is no honest confutation but uneffectual and for the most part unsuccessfull oft times fatal to them who use it sound doctrine diligently and duely taught is of herself both sufficient and of herself if some secret judgment of God hinder not alwaies prevalent against seducers This the Thyatirians had neglected suffering against Church-discipline that woman to teach and seduce among them civil force they had not then in thir power being the Christian part only of that citie and then especially under one of those ten great persecutions wherof this the second was raisd by Domitian force therfore in these matters could not be requir'd of them who were then under force themselves I have shewn that the civil power hath neither right nor can do right by forcing religious things I will now shew the wrong it doth by violating the fundamental privilege of the gospel the new-birthright of everie true beleever Christian libertie 2 Cor. 3.17 where the spirit of the Lord is there is libertie Gal. 4.26 Ierusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all and 31. we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free It will be sufficient in this place to say no more of Christian libertie then that it sets us free not only from the bondage of those ceremonies but also from the forcible imposition of those circumstances place and time in the worship of God which though by him commanded in the old law yet in respect of that veritie and freedom which is euangelical S. Paul comprehends both kindes alike that is to say both ceremonie and circumstance under one and the same contemtuous name of weak and beggarly rudiments Gal. 4.3.9 10. Col. 2.8 with 16 conformable to what our Saviour himself taught Iohn 4.21 23. neither in this mountain nor yet at Ierusalem In spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him that is to say not only sincere of heart for such he sought ever but also as the words here chiefly import not compelld to place and by the same reason not to any set time as his apostle by the same spirit hath taught us Rom. 14.6 c. one man esteemeth one day above another another c. Gal. 4.10 Ye observe dayes and moonths c. Coloss. 2.16 These and other such places of scripture the best and learnedest reformed writers have thought evident anough to instruct us in our freedom not only from ceremonies but from those circumstances also though impos'd with a confident perswasion of moralitie in them which they hold impossible to be in place or time By what warrant then our opinions and practises herin are of late turnd quite against all other Protestants and that which is to them orthodoxal to us become scandalous and punishable by statute I wish were once again better considerd if we mean not to proclame a schism in this point from the best and most reformed churches abroad They who would seem more knowing confess that these things are indifferent but for that very cause by the magistrate may be commanded As if God of his special grace in the gospel had to this end freed us from his own commandments in these things that our freedom should subject us to a more greevous yoke the commandments of men As well may the magistrate call that common or unclean which God hath cleansd forbidden to S. Peter Acts 10.15 as well may he loos'n that which God hath strait'nd or strait'n that which God hath loos'nd as he may injoin those things in religion which God hath left free and lay on that yoke which God hath taken off For he hath not only given us this gift as a special privilege and excellence of the free gospel above the servile law but strictly also hath commanded us to keep it and enjoy it Gal. 5.13 you are calld to libertie 1 Cor. 7.23 be not made the servants of men Gal. 5.14 stand fast therfore in the libertie wherwith Christ hath made us free and be not intangl'd again with the yoke of bondage Neither is this a meer command but for the most part in these forecited places accompanied with the verie waightiest and inmost reasons of Christian religion Rom. 14.9 10. for to this end Christ both dy'd and rose and reviv'd that he might be Lord both of the dead and living But why dost thou judge thy brother c. how presum'st thou to be his lord to be whose only Lord at least in these things Christ both dy'd and rose and livd again We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ why then dost