Superiors in Church and State as you exact from your Inferiors and then you will soon see the reasonableness of this Submission for without this Government would be Precarious and Subjection Arbitrary for every one that could not or would not see the reasonableness of Laws would exempt themselves from all Obedience to them By which means all Humoursom Proud and Perverse People might controul and nose their Superiors and cast off all Duty and Subjection to them And what mad work would it make in Church and State if no Laws were valid and binding unless every scrupulous peevish or ignorant Person should consent to and approve of it But will not this say you require Obedience to Arian Popish and Presbyterian Governors when they happen to be uppermost And in another place you tell me that this Doctrin would have done special Service in Queen Mary's Days and will bear a Man's Charges through all the Turks Dominions Sir in what Country or under what Governors soever we shall happen to live we are oblig'd in Conscience to obey the supream Authority of it in all lawful Things For Power being the Ordinance of God extends to all such Things as are not countermanded by God himself but if they command any thing that is unlawful or forbidden we are not bound to yeild Obedience yea we are bound not to yeild it because we are to obey God rather then Man when their Commands happen to clash or interfere But then the thing must be plainly and evidently forbidden by some express Law of God before we can withhold our Obedience for if the thing commanded be but doubtful or disputable if the sinfulness of it doth not manifestly appear but depends only on some remote uncertain and far fetch'd Consequences if more and wiser Men judge it lawful than unlawful here in such doubtful Matters which is our present Case the Authority of Superiors ought to over-rule our weaker Judgments and we must submit our private to the publick Wisdom and if we are at any time misled this way it will not be ours but the Superiors Fault and if it be not in a Matter apparently sinful 't will never be charg'd on us but those who have the Command and Conduct of us But how come they thus boldly to challenge a Judgment of Discretion who when time was denied it to all others tho' they put in the same Claim to it Are you Sir the only Men of Discretion to whom all others must submit And must none be allowed any Judgment of it but your selves This is a farther Instance of your abominable Pride and Partiality But because this and your Plea of Conscience is mightily insisted on as the main Dispensations from Obedience 't will be requisite to give some farther Account of it which shall be done in my next In the mean time I am SIR Yours M. H. Sept. 26th 1697. LETTER VIII SIR I Consider'd in my last your Judgment of Discretion and shew'd how far it ought to stoop to the Judgment and Discretion of Superiors But because this and the Pretence of Conscience which is indeed but the same Plea is commonly alledg'd to take off Obedience to Laws and is by too many thought a good Dispensation from it I promised to give some further Account of it To which end I must enquire into the Nature and Rule of Conscience and shew when it is a good Rule to guide our Actions and when not To which I shall add some things touching an erroneous doubting and scrupulous Conscience 1st And First For the Nature of Conscience It is nothing else but a Man's Mind or Judgment concerning the Good or Evil the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of things and according as the Mind is well or ill instructed or perswaded of them so it is either a good or bad Conscience Now the Rule of Conscience is the Will of God made known either by the Light of Nature or plain Scripture or by direct Consequence and Deductions from it for God being the sole Lawgiver and Judge of Conscience he alone hath the Right to govern and direct it which he doth by all or some of these Ways By which we may learn 2dly When Conscience is a safe Rule to guide our Actions and when not and this is the more carefully to be minded because very bad things have been done by misguided Consciences We read of some who in killing the Apostles thought they did God good Service and St. Paul in persecuting the Church did it as himself declares in all good Conscience for he verily thought that he ought to do many things against the Name of Christ and 't is well known what vile things have been acted under the Mask of a real or pretended Conscience And therefore it must be duly regulated before it can safely direct or justifie our Actions and how is that Why thus when it is well informed out of God's Word and passeth a right Judgment on things then 't is a good Guide and leads us in the way that we should go But when 't is ill advis'd and entertains wrong Notions then 't is a blind and false Guide and leads into Bogs and Errors in which last Sense 't is not so properly stil'd Conscience as Humour Fancy and Mistaken Opinion For the better clearing hereof we must note further That there are some things which the Law of God hath made necessary by commanding them and there are other things which it hath made sinful by for bidding them And besides these there are some things of a middle and indifferent Nature which God hath neither commanded nor forbidden In the two former sort of things our Consciences are tied up by a direct and immediate Obligation laid on them by God himself for we cannot omit any thing which God hath commanded neither can we commit any thing which he hath forbidden without apparent sining against him but in the things of a middle and indifferent Nature which are neither commanded nor forbidden our Conscience is at Liberty and may be no further restrained than by the Rules of Obedience to Governours for the publick Good or as we shall think fit by the Rule of Prudence and Charity to restrain our selves So that in these indifferent things wherein the Power of the Magistrate chiefly lies we may be restrained by Humane Laws made for the Peace Order and good Government of Church and State to the Observance whereof our Consciences are tied up not by a direct and immediate Obligation as in the former things but secondarily and mediately by Virtue of a Command of God requiring us to obey Magistrates and to submit to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And being thus oblig'd to obey them for Conscience sake 't will be absurd to make Conscience a Plea for disobeying them Now when the Mind is thus enligtned from God's Word and fully perswaded of the Truth of these things taking things commanded for necessary and things forbidden for sinful and those
preceptive Part of Laws and having an Eye only or chiefly to the coercive Part by which means if you are not at any time subject 't is merely for Wrath and not for Conscience sake Again 3dly This hath led you into a farther Mistake and made you take the suspending the Penalties for the Abrogation of the Laws for you imagine That the Act of Uniformity and all the Laws against Conventicles to have lost their Force from your being exempted from the Penalties of them Which shews That you place the Obligation of Laws not in the Matter or Things enjoined by them but wholly and solely in the Penalties annex'd to them so that when these are taken off the other of course are gone with them Yea 4thly You have a wilder Conceit than all this for you imagine That the removing the Penalties not only removes the Obligation of Laws but establishes the things forbidden by them For you take Conventicles to be allow'd and establish'd by that Law which merely exempts you from being punished for them which shews your deep reach in the Knowledge of the Laws or rather your gross Prevarications in the Observance of them In your Letter of July 11th you tell me That your Places of Meeting are as lawfully allowed as our Temples now our Temples being establish'd by Law yours it seems must have the same Authority And in your Letter of June 30th you say 't is to arraign the Government to affirm otherwise 'T is to be fear'd Sir That your Confidence in time will mount you so high as to reckon it a Crime to go to Church and to shut up all Religion and Virtue within the Walls of a Conventicle But let us hear what you have to say for these things and 1st you tell me That this Law amounts to more than a Suspension of the Penalty For it allows your Congregations guards them from Disturbance and exempts the Ministers from serving in any secular Office which is a sort of Reward Sir the Allowance mentioned in that Act implies no Approbation of your Congregations much less any Establishment of them but merely a winking at them for some temporal Reasons To keep any from disturbing them amounts to no more than a bare Permission or Toleration And for exempting you from secular Offices 't is a privilege granted to all in holy Orders of which you make a very bad use to think it a Reward for your making and continuing Divisions But you go on to tell me That if it were a bare Suspension of the Penalty yet that were enough to render them void of any Obligation on your Consciences to Obedience because they are merely Penal Laws Sir if you account all Laws that have a Penalty annex'd to the Breach of them to be Penal Laws you may then reckon the Ecclesiastical Laws and indeed all other Laws in that Number there being scarce any to be found without it But to reckon them merely Penal upon that account is a great Mistake to rectifie which you must know That there are some Laws express'd in Disjunctive Terms requiring to do this or that as in the Case of bearing such an Office or paying such a Fine Here the Law is purely Penal and paying the Fine answers the end of it being left in the Power of the Subject to chuse either but there are other Laws that directly and positively require something to be done or not done with a Penalty added to the Violation of it and here 't is not the suffering the Punishment but observing the thing that satisfies the Law Of this kind are the Laws that establish Conformity where he that does not what is commanded is a Transgressor of the Law and justly suffers for the Breach of it But you prove these to be merely Penal Laws because they require things that are no way apt to promote the common Good and till we prove them otherwise you will never be sensible of their pretended Obligation Sir Are Unity Order and Decency in the publick Worship which are the subject of these Laws things no way apt to promote the common Good Do you not read many express Precepts and Exhortations to them for the Benefit and Edisication of the Church Certainly if you have any Sense of Duty to the Laws of God or Man these things will carry more than a pretended Obligation But you have one thing more to say in your Letter of June 28th and that is That the Law does not only call your Liberty an Allowance but also that 't is for the Ease of Conscience Now the Suspension of the Penalty is only say you for the Ease of the Back and the Purse but 't is the taking off the Obligation that is for the Ease of Conscience Sir All the Ease granted or intended by that Act relates only to the Persons and Purses of Dissenters which are thereby exempted from the Temporal Fines and Penalties annex'd to the Breach of some Laws which is all that the Civil Magistrate can do but may not be extended to the taking off the Guilt or Obligation to Eternal Punishments which none but God the sole Law-giver and Judge of Conscience hath Power to remove Now Schism which is a Breach of the Peace and Unity of the Church being forbidden by the Law of God cannot have its Guilt or Obligation to eternal Punishment taken off by suspending the Temporal Penalties much less can it become lawful or made harmless by humane Laws I hope you do not think that Impunity can void the Obligation of Divine Laws or that a thing ceases to be a Sin because it ceaseth to be punish'd by the Civil Magistrate for then Theft Adultery and Murder would be no Crimes if the Punishment of them were at any time forborn and suspended And if Sentence against an evil Work be not executed presently the Hearts of the Children of Men might be safely set in them to do Evil Eccles viii 11. But how come they to plead for Toleration now who not long since thought and stil'd it intolerable Is that which was then the Mother of Confusion the Nurse of Schism Jus. Div. Reg. Eccl. and the Step-mother of Edification as they were wont to call it become of a sudden the Parent of all true Religion and Vertue No certainly the Matter is That 't was other Mens Case then and 't is their own now and that makes a mighty Alteration Are you not asham'd of such gross Partiality which is enough to make a Forehead of Brass to blush I shall conclude this Letter with the Words of your beloved John Calvin who tells us That in a true Church Instit L. 4. cap. 1. Sect. 10. where the Word of God is truly preach'd and the Sacraments duly administred none may presume to despise the Authority or resist the Admonitions or refuse the Counsels or slight the Corrections of it much less to withdraw from it and break its Unity and go unpunished Adding That God so highly
Governours certainly such little Scruples ought not to stand in Competition with them But the 14th Chapter to the Romans say you if well minded would put an end to these Differences and indeed so it would if it were well understood and observed For the things discours'd of in that Chapter were things not only indifferent in their Nature but left so as to their Use as the eating of Herbs and sundry sorts of Meat the observing of Days and the like in which every one had their Liberty no Superior Power having interpos'd either to command or forbid them in which Case they sinned not in using or austaining from them And therefore the Apostle wills them not to censure or condemn one another for using this Liberty either way But the Case with us is very different for tho' the things are indifferent in themselves and left so as to our Judgment about them yet our Practice is determined by the Authority of Superiors which are to sway and over-rule in these Matters There are indeed many things left arbitrary and indifferent to us about which Men may and do entertain some Scruples as playing at Cards and Dice lending upon Usury and the like which being under no Command Men may do in them as they think most convenient Here the Case is parallel with us and the Romans and all the Apostle's Directions about the one may well enough be applied to the other But as for Forms of Prayer Kneeling at the Sacrament and the like These being commanded by our Superiors for the Decency and Order of Publick Worship it becomes our Duty to observe them and our Sin to neglect or act contrary to them And thus having I hope given you some Satisfaction as to the Plea of Conscience and Judgment of Discretion I shall next consider your Notion of Moderation In the mean time I am SIR Yours M. H. Sept. 28th 1697. LETTER IX SIR WE have seen That neither the Judgment of Discretion or Plea of Conscience can null the Obligation or dispense with our Obedience to the wholsome Laws either of Church or State Let us see then what your Notion of Moderation can do towards it whether that will not take off some part of them or allow us to observe only so much of them as we think fit For 't is not for nothing that you so frequently cry up Moderation which is a plausible Term for some Abatement You talk much of a due Temper towards Dissenters by which you mean no doubt the indulging 'em in their Schisms and Divisions And to draw in some Church-men of your side you often commend such as fail and falter in their Duty for moderate Men. Now because the Apostle wills Phil. 4.5 That Our Moderation should be known unto all Men 't will be requisite to inquire into the Nature and true Notion of that Vertue that we may rightly know our selves what we are to make known unto others To this end we must Note First That Moderation is sometimes taken for the moderate use of God's Creatures or keeping the mean in Eating or Drinking in this Sense 't is the same with Temperance and Sobriety which help to regulate our Appetite and Practice in the necessary Actions and Refreshments of humane Life But tho' this be an excellent and useful Vertue yet it falls not under our present Consideration Secondly Moderation is sometimes taken for the well-governing our Passions and Affections keeping them within their due Bounds and not suffering 'em to run into Inordinacy or Excess In this Sense 't is the same with Meekness or Gentleness which teach Men to moderate their Anger and regulate all other Passions by fixing 'em upon right Objects and keeping 'em within their due Measures and Proportions This likewise is an excellent Vertue and highly conduces both to the publick and private Peace Thirdly Moderation is sometimes taken for the mild-interpreting and executing of Laws Construing 'em in the more favourable Sense and abating the Rigour and Severity of them Summum jus summa injuria which in many Cases would be great Injury and Oppression In this Sense 't is the same with Equity which takes off the edge and extremity of Laws and gives all those Allowances which are consistent with the Reason and Intention of them this too is a great Vertue and Necessary to the Welfare and good Government of all Societies These I take to be the principal if not the only approved Senses of Moderation But besides these some have lately started a new and wild Notion of it that was never heard of in the Church till the Rise of our unhappy Schisms and Dissensions Since which some have taken Moderation for a paring off a great part of their Conformity to the Church and complying too far with the Dissenters from it Thus he that prevaricates and performs his Duty by halves by curtailing and cutting short the Prayers of the Church mangling and leaving out what parts he pleases of them in the publick Ministrations He that Baptizeth without the Sign of the Cross and many times neglects the decent Habits and Gestures appointed to be used in Divine Service such an one is stiled and frequently passes for a moderate Man and such as these are the Darlings of the Dissenters for we shall hear them commending their Moderation upon all Occasions The plain Reason whereof is because they do just as they would have them that is by neglecting some part of their Duty to the Church they give 'em some Countenance in rejecting all Yea they take these half Conformists to be inward Approvers of their ways they think and say that their Hearts are with 'em and would gladly come to 'em were it not for some Advantages and Preferments in the Church that keep 'em from ' em Now this besides the Hollowness and Hypocrisie of the Conformity is a most dangerous piece of Moderation for it hardens Dissenters in their Schism betrays the Church and lays it open to the Assaults and Evil Designs of its greatest Enemies Again he that Conforms to the Dissenters in long Pulpit-Prayers before Sermon hastily running over the Prayers of the Church to make more room for his long-winded Conceptions he goes for a moderate Man and many such you tell me there are in the Church with whom you have some Acquaintance and for whom you have no small Honour Sir I hope the number of those Men are not so great as you imagine I am sure the Church gives 'em no leave or encouragement for any such Practice for this wills us in our Pulpit-Prayers to use either those Concise Words mention'd in the Canon or some short form of our own to the same effect And the ancient practice of the Church was according to it for we find the Fathers before their Sermons had only some Vota pacis or Benedictions of the People or some short Ejaculations imploring the Divine Assistance as we see in the Homilies of St. Chrysostom St. Ambrose St.
I hope the sequel of this Letter will plainly discover But first I cannot but observe That before the making of that Act your Conventicles were as frequent and with as little regret as they have been since And I find you declaring in your Letter of June the 30th That tho' you have a Law permitting and allowing your Preaching yet you still counted it your Duty before and your Practice was accordingly So that whatever claim you make to a Law 't is no better than a meer pretence For 't is plain That you matter not the Law but will do as you think fit as well without as with it however since you have it you will not fail to make the best of it And tho' the Title of it shews it only to be an Exemption from some Penalties yet you will not have it thought barely an Allowance but an Approbation of your Assemblies which shews how much you extend Favour further than you should and if the Government at any time give you an Inch how apt and ready you are to take an Ell. And therefore to give a check to this Vanity I must tell you 2dly That the Law you insist upon does not take off the Obligation of repairing to the Establish'd Churches but only suffers you to go unpunish'd if you do otherwise Now if you would rightly consider the nature of Laws and the true Principle of Obedience to them you would soon see That the bare suspending the Punishment is far from annulling the Obligation of Laws For the clearing of which I shall premise a few things that may help to give some light to it 1st And First In all Laws two things are to be consider'd viz. a Precept requiring some thing to be done or left undone And a Penalty to be inflicted upon the doing or not doing of it In the first of these consists the Nature and Essence of a Law which lies in commanding something to be done or not done and this is to be a Rule to govern the Actions and oblige the Consciences of such as are subjected to the higher Powers whereas the latter is only a Circumstance added to it to make it observ'd By which it appears 2dly That the Penalty appertains not to the Being or Essence of a Law but is meerly an accidental Adjunct or Appendix annext to it to enforce Obedience Were all Men led as they should be by Principles of Conscience there would be no need or use of Penalties But because too many thro' the pravity of their Natures lose the Sense of their Duty and are led by Humour Interest and corrupt Designs away from it Punishments become necessary to reduce them to it Furthermore you must note 3dly That the main Reason of our Obligation to Laws is founded on the Will of the Law-giver sufficiently made known for he having a Commission and Authority from God to command in all lawful things we are therefore bound in Duty and Conscience to obey him therein as God's Minister So that whensoever he duly declares and publishes his Mind then does the Obligation commence and ceases not till he think fit to countermand and recall it 4thly We must observe a double Principle or Motive of Obedience the one for Wrath or Fear of Punishment the other for Conscience sake now our Obedience to Laws is by the Apostle's Direction to be grounded on both but chiefly on the latter for he wills all Christians to be subject not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake so that if the Fear of Wrath or the Displeasure of the Magistrate be gone by removing of the Penalty there remains another and stronger Tye to our Duty even the Obligation of Conscience which must hold us to it while the preceptive part of the Law remains tho' the coercive ceases Now from these Propositions duly consider'd these two things will necessarily follow 1st That while the Will and Pleasure of the Law-giver is to continue a Law which must be suppos'd till the preceptive part of it wherein it mainly consists be repeal'd so long the Law continues in force and the Obligation of it remains 2dly That the bare Suspension of the Penalty is no repealing of a Law for while the preceptive part which is the Essence of the Law remains it still keeps its Force and our Obedience to it is not superseded by the ceasing of the Punishment In short then seeing the things commanded in those Laws that require Conformity to the Church continue still unrepeal'd and nothing taken off but the Punishment which belongs not to the Essence of them it evidently follows that the Obligation to them remains and that the Subjects are still bound to do what is still required by them which was the thing to be prov'd The want of a right Understanding of these things hath occasioned many and great Mistakes in this Matter For 1st It was not long since you took the undergoing the Penalty to be the keeping of the Law for when you were charged with Disobedience to the lawful Injunction of Superiors your Reply was That tho' you did not what the Law requir'd yet you suffer'd what the Law inflicted and this you thought sufficiently answer'd the end of the Law Now the Weakness of this arguing will easily appear by considering that 't is the preceptive Part that is the Form or Essence of the Law and if you disobey that you cannot be said to keep the Law by undergoing the Punishment which is inflicted only for the Breach of it Yea the end of the Penalty being only to enforce Obedience to the thing commanded to suffer the one without doing the other is to contradict and defeat the ends of both Indeed where the Matter of a Law is sinful their undergoing the Penalty is as much as a good Christian may or ought to do and in such Cases Submission is required when Obedience is not But where the Matter of a Law neither is nor can be proved unlawful there 't is not the suffering what is inflicted but doing what is required that answers the end of the Law For the primary Intention of all Laws and Lawgivers is not the Punishment and grieving the Subjects but their observing what is commanded them for the good of the Common-wealth He that thinks the Magistrate is well pleas'd with punishing the Contempt as rewarding Obedience to his Laws must think unworthily of him and he that makes this the Rule and Measure of his Actions is no better Observer of Laws than the Thief or the Traytor who are hang'd for the Breach of them Again 2dly As you formerly mistook the suffering the Penalty for keeping of the Law so now you are fallen into the quite contrary Mistake and take the not-suffering the Penalty for the keeping of it For you imagine the late Act exempting you from the Punishment of some Laws hath freed you from any farther Duty or Obligation to them These Errors you unawares run into merely by over looking the principal and