Conscience in matters of Religious Worship as in Affairs of Justice and Honesty i. e. a Liberty of Iudgment but not of practice they have an inviolable freedom to examine the Goodness of all Laws Moral and Ecclesiastical and to judge of them by their suitableness to the natural Reasons of Good and Evil but as for the Practice and all outward Actions either of Virtue or Devotion they are equally governable by the Laws and Constitutions of Common-wealths and men may with the same pretences of Reason challenge an Exemption from all Humane Laws in Matters of common Honesty upon the score of the Freedom of their Consciences as they plead a liberty from all Authority in Duties of Religious Worship upon the same account because they have a freedom of Judgment in both but of Practice in neither § 2. And upon the reasonableness of this Principle is founded the Duty or rather Priviledge of Christian Liberty viz. To assert the Freedom of the Mind of Man as far as 't is not inconsistent with the Government of the World in that a sincere and impartial use of our own Understandings is the first and Fundamental Duty of Humane Nature Hence it is that the Divine Providence is so highly solicitous not to have it farther restrained than needs must and therefore in all matters of pure Speculation it leaves the mind of Man entirely free to judge of the Truth and Falshood of things and will not suffer it to be usurp'd upon by any Authority whatsoever And whatsoever Opinion any man entertains of things of this Nature he injures no man by it and therefore no man can have any reason to commence any Quarrel with him for it Every man here judges for himself and not for others and matters of meer Opinion having no reference to the Publick there is no need of any Publick Judgment to determine them But as for those Actions that are capable of having any Influence upon the Publick Good or ill of Mankind though they are liable to the Determinations of the Publick Laws yet the Law of God will not suffer them to be determin'd farther than is requisite to the Ends of Government And in those very things in which it has granted the Civil Magistrate a Power over the Practices of men it permits them not to exercise any Authority over their Judgments but leaves them utterly free to judge of them as far as they are Objects of meer Opinion and relate not to the Common Interest of mankind And hence though the Commands of our Lawful Superiours may change Indifferent things into Necessary Duties yet they cannot restrain the Liberty of our Minds from judging things thus determin'd to remain in their own Nature Indifferent and the Reason of our Obligation to do them is not fetcht from any Antecedent Necessity in themselves but from the Supervening Commands of Authority to which Obedience in all things Lawful is a Necessary Duty So that Christian Liberty or the Inward Freedom of our Judgments may be preserved inviolable under the Restraints of the Civil Magistrate which are Outward and concern only the Actions not Judgments of men because the Outward Determination to one Particular rather than another does not abrogate the Inward Indifferency of the thing it self and the Duty of our Acting according to the Laws arises not from any Opinion of the Necessity of the thing it self but either from some Emergent and Changeable Circumstances of Order and Decency or from a sense of the Absolute Indispensableness of the Duty of Obedience Therefore the whole Affair of Christian Liberty relates only to our Inward Judgment of things and provided this be kept inviolate it matters not as to that Concern what Restraints are laid upon our Cutward Actions In that though the Gospel has freed our Consciences from the Power of things yet it has not from that of Government we are free from the matter but not from the Authority of Humane Laws and as long as we obey the Determinations of our Superiours with an Opinion of the Indifferency of the things themselves we retain the Power of our Christian Liberty and are still free as to the matter of the Law though not as to the Duty of Obedience § 3. Neither is this Prerogative of our Christian Liberty so much any new Favour granted in the Gospel as the Restauration of the mind of Man to its Natural Priviledge by Exempting us from the Yoke of the Ceremonial Law whereby things in themselves indifferent were tied upon the Conscience with as indispensable an Obligation as the Rules of Essential Goodness Equity during the whole Period of the Mosaick Dispensation which being Cancell'd by the Gospel those Indifferent things that had been made necessary by a Divine positive Command return'd to their own Nature to be used or omitted only as occasion should direct And upon this Account was it that St. Paul though he were so earnest an Assertor of his Christian Liberty against the Doctrine of the Necessity of Jewish Ceremonies never scrupled to use them when ever he thought it serviceable to the Interests of Christianity as is apparent in his Circumcision of Timothy to which he would never have condescended out of Observation of the Mosaick Law and yet did not in the least scruple to do it for other Purposes as Prudence and Discretion should direct him And though in his Discourses of Christian Liberty he Instances only in Circumcision Meats and Drinks and other Ceremonial Ordinances which were then the Particulars most in Dispute between the Christians and the Jews yet by the clearest Analogy of Reason the Case is the same as to the Judicial Law and all other things commanded by Moses that were not either Rules of Eternal Goodness or expresly establish'd in the Gospel This being its clearest and most important Design to reprieve Mankind from all the burdensome and Arbitrary Impositions of Moses that were scarce capable of any other Goodness than their being Instances of Obedience and to restore us to such a Religion as was most suitable to the perfection of Humane Nature and to tye no other Laws upon us than such whose Natural and Intrinsick Goodness should carry with them their own Eternal Obligation And therefore whatsoever our Superiours impose upon us whether in Matters of Religious Worship or any other Duties of Morality it neither is nor can be any entrenchment upon our Christian Liberty provided it be not imposed with an Opinion of the Antecedent Necessity of the thing it self § 4. Now the Design of what I have discoursed upon this Article of Christian Liberty is not barely to shew the manifest Impertinency of all those little Objections men force from it against the Civil Magistrates Jurisdiction over the outward Concerns of Religion whereas this relates entirely to things of a quite different Nature and is only concern'd in the inward Actions of the Mind but withal my purpose is mainly by exempting all internal Acts of the Soul from
War It Enervates all its own Laws of Nature by Founding the Reason of their Obligation upon meer Self-Interest Which false and absurd Principle being removed all that is Base or peculiar in the whole Hypothesis is utterly Cashier'd § 1. WHen any thing that is Apparently and Intrinsecally Evil is the Matter of an Humane Law whether it be of a Civil or Ecclesiastical Concern here God is to be obeyed rather than Man No Circumstances can alter the Rules of Prime and Essential Rectitude their goodness is Eternal and Unchangeable And therefore in all such Actions Disobedience to Humane Laws is so far from being a Sin that it becomes an indispensable Duty Where the good or evil of an Action is determined by the Law of Nature no Positive Humane Law can take off its Morality because 't is in it self repugnant to the principles of right Reason by consequence as unchangeable as that And therefore if the Supreme Magistrate should make a Law not to believe the Being of God or Providence the Truth of the Gospel the Immortality of the Soul that Law can no more bind than if a Prince should command a man to murther his Father or to ravish his Mother because the Obligatory Power of all such Laws is antecedently rescinded by a stronger and more Indispensable Obligation And thus has every Man a natural right to be Virtuous and no Authority whatsoever can deny him the liberty of acting Virtuously without being guilty of the foulest Tyranny and Injustice Not so much because Subjects are in any thing free from the Authority of the Supreme Power on Earth as because they are subject to a Superiour in Heaven and they are only then excused from the duty of obedience to their Sovereign when they cannot give it without Rebellion against God So that it is not originally any right of their own that exempts them from a subjection to the Sovereign Power in all things but 't is purely Gods right of governing his own Creatures that Magistrates then invade when they make Edicts to violate or controul his Laws And those who would take off from the Consciences of men all obligations antecedent to those of humane Laws instead of making the Power of Princes supreme absolute and uncontroulable they utterly enervate all their Authority and set their Subjects at perfect liberty from all their Commands For if we once remove all the antecedent obligations of Conscience and Religion men will be no further bound to submit to their Laws than only as themselves shall see convenient and if they are under no other restraint it will be their wisdom to rebel as oft as it is their Interest In that the Laws of Superiours passing no Obligation upon the Consciences of Subjects they neither are nor can be under any stronger Engagements to Subjection than to preserve themselves from the Penalties and Inflictions of the Law and so by consequence may despise its Obligation whenever they can hope to escape its punishment Now how must this weaken the Power and supplant the Thrones of Princes if every Subject may despise their Laws or invade their Sovereignty whenever he can hope to build his own Fortune upon their Ruines How would it expose their Scepters to the continual Attempts of Rebels and Usurpers when every one that has strength enough to wrest it out of his Princes hands has Right and Title enough to hold it What security could Princes have of their Subjects Loyalty that will own their Power as long as it shall be their interest and when it ceases to be so call it Tyranny How shall they ever be secured by any Promises Oaths and Covenants of Allegiance that have no other band but self-security or hope of Exemption from the Penalties of the Law Will not the most sacred Bonds and Compacts leave them in as insecure a condition as they found them in In that Self-advantage would have kept their Subjects loyal and obedient without Oaths and nothing else will do it with them and therefore they can add no new Obligations to that of Interest For if to perform their Covenants be advantageous they are bound to perform them by the Laws of prudence and discretion without the Oath as much as with it if disadvantageous no Oath can oblige them in that Interest and Self-preservation is the only enforcement of all their Covenants and therefore when that Tye happens to cease their Obligation becomes Null and Void and they may observe them if they please and if they please break them § 2. But the vanity and groundlesness of this opinion will more fully appear by discovering the lamentable Foundation on which it stands and that is a late wild Hypothesis concerning the Nature and Original of Government which is briefly this That the natural condition of Mankind is a State and Posture of War of every man against every man in that all men being born in a condition of equality they have all an equal right to all things and because all cannot enjoy all hence every man becomes an Enemy to every man in which State of Hostility there is no way for any man to secure himself so reasonable as Anticipation that is by Force or Wiles to master the persons of all men he can till he see no other Power great enough to endanger himself so that there is no remedy but that in the State of Nature all men must be obliged to seek and contrive in order to their own security one anothers Destruction But because in this Condition Mankind must for ever groan under all the miseries and calamities of War therefore they have wisely chosen by mutual consent to enter into Contracts and Covenants of mutual trust in which every man has in order to his own Security been content to relinquish his natural and unlimited right to every thing and hereby they enter into a state of Peace and Government in which every man engages by solemn Oath and Covenant to submit himself to the Publick Laws in order to his own private safety So that according to this Hypothesis there are no Rules of Right or Wrong antecedent to the Laws of the Common-wealth but all men are at absolute liberty to do as they please and how cruel soever they may be to one another they can never be injurious there being nothing just or unjust but what is made so by the Laws of the Society to which all its Members covenant to submit when they enter into it This Hypothesis as odde as it is is become the Standard of our Modern Politicks by which men that pretend to understand the real Laws of Wisdom and Subtlety must square their Actions and therefore is swallowed down with as much greediness as an Article of Faith by the Wild and Giddy People of the Age. And of the reality of it none can doubt but Fops and raw-brain'd Fellows that understand nothing of the World or the Complexion of Humane Nature Now 't is but labour in vain
Word of God as the four Gospels Leviath p. 3. c. 33. For if Sovereigns in their own Dominions are the sole Legislators then those Books only are Canonical that is Law in every Nation which are established for such by the Sovereign Authority So that all Religions are in reality nothing but Cheats and Impostures and at best but so many Tales of Imaginary and Invisible Powers Publickly allowed and encouraged to awe the Common People to Obedience Leviath p. 1. c. 12. Who are betrayed into it by these four Follies A false Opinion of Ghosts and immaterial Substances that neither are nor ever can be Ignorance of Second Causes Devotion towards what men groundlesly fear And mistaking things Casual for Divine Prognosticks In brief all Religion is nothing but a Cheat of Policy and was at first invented by the Founders and Legislators of Common-wealths and by them obtruded upon the credulous Rabble for the Ends of Government And therefore though Princes may wisely make use of the Fables of Religion to serve their own turns upon the silly Multitude yet 't is below their Wisdom to be seriously concern'd themselves for such Fooleries so that provided their subjects will befool themselves with any one Imposture 't is not material which they single out in that all Religions equally oblige to the belief of Invisible Powers which is all that is requisite to the Designs of Policy And as long as a Prince can keep up any apprehensions of Religion in the minds of his Subjects 't is no Policy to disoblige and exasperate any of them by interessing his Power for one Party more than another and by forcing all other Sects against their own Inclinations to conform their Belief to the Perswasions of one Faction but rather to endear them all to himself by indulging them their Liberty in their different Follies and so he may with more ease secure his Government by abusing all and yet disobliging none § 2. In answer to this Objection 't is not material to my present Purpose largely to examine refute these Wild and extravagant Pretences by asserting the Truth and Divine Authority of Religion and giving a rational account of the Grounds and Principles on which it stands only let me observe that this Discourse lies under no less prejudice than this That if any of the Principles of Religion be true then is all these mens Policy false But waving this too great advantage I shall content my self only to discover of what noisom and pernicious consequence such Principles are to the Common-wealth though it were granted that all Religion were nothing but Imposture And this I shall do without reminding the Reader how I have already prevented this Objection in the first part of the Discourse when I shew'd what good or bad Influence upon the State mens perswasions about Religion have by these four ensuing Considerations First Then methinks his Majesty is bound to con these men thanks for endeavouring to render the truth of Religion suspected and to possess mens minds with apprehensions of its being false whereby they effectually rob him of the best security of his Crown and strongest inducements of obedience to his Laws There being for certain nothing so absolutely necessary to the reverence of Government the peace of Societies and common Interests of mankind as a sense of Conscience and Religion This is the strongest Bond of Laws and only support of Government without it the most absolute and unlimited Powers in the World must be for ever miserably weak and precarious and lie always at the mercy of every Subjects passion and private Interest For when the obligations of Conscience and Religion are cashier'd men can have no higher inducements to Loyalty and Obedience than the considerations of their own private Interest and security and then wherever these happen to fail and Interest and advantage invite to disobedience men may do as they please And when they have power to shake off Authority they have right too and a prosperous Usurper shall have as fair a Title to his Crown as the most lawful Prince all Government will be founded upon force and violence and Kings nothing but terrible men with long Swords But when the ties of Conscience are superinduced upon those of Secular Interest this extends the Power of Princes to the hearts of their Subjects and secures them as much from the very thoughts as attempts of Treason For nothing so strongly influences the minds of men or so authoritatively commands their passions and inclinations as Religion forasmuch as no fears are not only to the considerate part of Mankind but to the ruder sort so vehement as those of Hell nor hopes so active as those of Heaven and therefore the Commands of Religion being back'd with such mighty sanctions they must needs have infinitely more force to awe or allure the minds of men to a compliance than any Secular Interests Whereas those men that think themselves above the Follies of Conscience and either believe or regard not the evils threatned hereafter an attainment to which these our modern Politicians do not blush to pretend though it be but an odde piece of Policy openly to owne and proclaim it must make their present Interest the Rule and measure of all their actions and can have no other obligation to obey their lawful Superiours in what they command than they have to disobey them viz. their own security and self-preservation Whereas if these men lived under the restraints of Conscience and the serious apprehensions of Religion and believed the Laws of their Prince to be bound upon them by the Laws of God and that under the threatnings of everlasting misery their Loyalty would be tied upon them by all that men can either hope or fear and they would have all the engagements to obedience that the serious reflections upon a happy or miserable Eternity could lay upon them But if the Principles of Government have so essential a dependence upon those of Religion if nothing be powerful enough to secure obedience but the hopes and fears of another life if all humane Laws have their main force and efficacy from the apprehensions of Religion if Oaths Promises and Covenants and whatsoever else whereby Civil Societies are upheld are made firm by nothing but the bonds of Religion then let Authority judge how much it is beholden to those men who labour to bring it into Publick Disreputation and to possess their Subjects with an opinion of its falshood whereby they not only set them loose from their Authority but enrage them against it by perswading them they are governed by Cheats and Impostures and that the Magistrate builds his Dominion upon their folly and simplicity there being nothing more hateful to Mankind than to be imposed upon So that though Religion were a Cheat they are apparently the greatest Enemies to Government that tell the World it is so § 3. But secondly Nothing more concerns the Interest of the Civil Magistrate than to
and occasional whereas those of Obedience are of a prime absolute and eternal necessity Princes are Gods Deputies and Lieutenants here on earth he vests them with their power and by his own Law binds us to obey theirs and though their Decrees pass no direct Obligation upon the Consciences of men yet the Divine laws directly and immediately bind their Consciences to obey them and God has annex'd the same Penalties to Disobedience to their Laws as to his own So that obedience to all the lawful Commands of our Superiours is one part of our Duty to God because our obligation to it is tied upon us by his own immediate Command aud therefore if the duty of avoiding scandal that is of Compliance with my neighbours weakness be sufficient to excuse that of Obedience to Authority 't is so too to take off the immediate Obligations of God himself So that when these two the publick commands of a lawful Superiour and the private Offence of an honest Neighbour countermand each other if the latter prevail then may it forbid what God has made a necessary Duty and oblige us to disobey him out of Compliance with the folly and ignorance of men How few are there of the Divine Laws more severe and peremptory than those that command Obedience to Authority And therefore if we may decline this duty only to avoid scandal Why not any Why not all This then is our Duty and must be done and as for all its casual and equivocal events no mans Conscience is concern'd to provide against them And if other men will be offended because I do my Duty that is their fault and not mine and better be the occasion of another mans sin than the Author of mine own No mans folly or ignorance can cancel my obligations to God or God's Vicegerent and in all cases where there is any competition between scandal and a Command of God or any other lawful Authority there is no other difficulty to be resolved than whether I shall disobey God or displease my foolish Neighbour And 't is one would think past all dispute that when any thing is positively determin'd as a matter of Duty the obligations to Obedience in that particular are not for that very reason left to any man's Choice and Prudence as all matters of Scandal are but it must become in all Cases and Circumstances whatsoever a Duty of a precise absolute and indispensable Necessity And certainly God had made but odd provision for the Government of the World if he should allow one Subject for the pleasure of another to derogate from the Authority of lawful Superiours and permit them the liberty to disobey the Commands of Governours rather than displease one another for this must unavoidably end in an utter dissolution of all Government devolve the Supremacy entirely upon every private man that either has or can pretend to have a weak and a tender Conscience For if scandal to weak and tender Consciences be of sufficient force to rescind the obligatory Power of the Commands of Authority then whoever either has or can pretend to a weak Conscience gains thereby an absolute Sovereignty over all his Superiours and vests himself with a power to dispense with or evacuate their Commands So that in the issue of all this pretence puts it in the power of any peevish or malevolent person to cancel all the Decrees of Princes and make his own humour the Rule of all their Polity and Laws of Government and become Superior to his own Superiours only by being ignorant or peevish How is it possible to make Authority more cheap and contemptible if men would study to weaken and disgrace it than by making its Commands of less force than the folly or perverseness of every arrogant Mechanick And what can be more destructive of all manner of Government than to make all the Rules of Order and Discipline less sacred than the whimsies of every phantastick Zealot In brief the peace and quiet of honest men is likely to be mighty well secured when disobedience shall be thought the product of a more exact and tender Conscience When to pick quarrels with the Laws and make scruple of obeying them shall be made the specifick Character of the Godly Party and when giddy and humorous Zeal shall not only excuse but hallow Disobedience when every one that has pride enough to fancy himself a Child of God shall have Licence to despise Authority and do as he list What an irresistible temptation is this to proud and zealous Enthusiasts to affect being troublesome to Government and disobedient to all the Laws of Discipline when it shall pass for the result of a more extraordinary tenderness of Conscience What encouragement could men have to obey their Superiours when to dispute and dislike their Laws shall be thought to proceed from a greater holiness and a more exact integrity And what a resistless inducement is this to all proud and phantastick Zealots to remonstrate to the Wisdom of Authority if thereby they may gain the Renown and Glory of a more conspicuous godliness If men would but consider the natural Consequences of this and the like Pretences they could not but see how fatally and unavoidably they lead to Anarchy and an utter dissolution of all Government Which mischief as is notoriously apparent from the Premisses all the World can never prevent if the scandal of Private men may ever dispence with the Obligation of Publick Laws CHAP. VIII Of the Pretence of a Tender and unsatisfied Conscience the Absurdity of Pleading it in Opposition to the Commands of Publick Authority The Contents THis pretence is but an after-game of Conscience 'T is a certain and unavoidable dissolution of Government 'T is a superannuated Pretence and is become its own Confutation Old Scruples proceed not from Tenderness but Stubborness of Conscience This particularly shewn in their scruple of kneeling at the Communion They affect their Scruples out of Pride and Vain-glory. Tenderness of Conscience is so far from being the reason of Disobedience that it lays upon us the strongest Obligations to Obedience A Tender Conscience is ever of a yielding and pliable temper When 't is otherwise 't is nothing but humour or insolence and is usually hardy enough not to scruple the greatest Villanies The Commands of Publick Authority abrogate all doubts and scruples and determine all irresolution of Conscience The matter of all scruples is too small to weigh against the Sin and Mischief of Disobedience The Apostles Apology viz. We ought to obey God rather than men holds only in matters of great and apparent Duty but not in doubtful and disputable Cases Nothing more easie than to raise scruples No Law can escape them this particularly shewn in our own Laws When two Obligations interfere the greater always cancels the less Hence 't is impossible for any man to be reduced into a necessity of Sinning Obedience to Publick Authority is one of the greatest and most
indispensable Duties of Mankind because most necessary to their well-being To act against our own scruples out of obedience to Authority is an eminent instance of virtue In cases of a Publick Concern men are to be govern'd not by their own private but by the publick Iudgment In these matters the Commands of Publick Authority are the Supreme Rules of Conscience There is a vast difference between Liberty and Authority of Conscience The Puritans tenderness of Conscience is one of the rankest sort of Heresies Wherefore 't is absolutely necessary for Authority to command things indifferent The Conclusion of all Sect. 1. THE last refuge for Godly Disobedience is the pretence of a poubtful scrupulous unsatisfied conscience for say they though we cannot positively condemn the Ceremonial Constitutions of the Church as things in themselves unlawful yet unlawful they are to us whose Consciences are not sufficiently satisfied concerning them because whatsoever is done with a doubting Conscience i. e. without Faith or a full perswasion of mind is done against it according to that clear and unquestionable Maxim of St. Paul Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin But this precarious pretence as well as that of scandal is but an after-game of Conscience they first resolved to quarrel our Constitutions and then 't is an easie matter to want satisfaction about them and when mens Arguments depend upon their Wills 't is in their own power only to repeal them and all the Reason in the world can never cure willful and artificial Scruples However if the obligation of Laws must yield to that of a weak and tender Conscience how impregnably is every man that has a mind to disobey arm'd against all the Commands of his Superiours No Authority shall be able to govern him farther than himself pleases and if he dislike the Law he is sufficiently excused from all obligations to Obedience and no Laws shall ever be able to oblige any man that either has or can pretend to a weak Conscience for seeing no man can discern the reality of mens pretensions 't is all one to the Concernments of Government whether the tenderness of Conscience that men plead to excuse their disobedience be serious or counterfeit For whether it be so or so 't is directly contrary to all the ends and interests of Government And if it be admitted for a sufficient excuse to disobey 't is an effectual and incurable dissolution of all the force of Laws and makes them obligatory then only when every man pleases and he that will may obey and he that will not may chuse seeing 't is so easie for any man that has no inclination to the Law to claim the inviolable Priviledge of a tender Conscience So that to make Proviso's for tender Consciences is to abate the whole Law seeing it gives every man liberty to exempt himself and if he dislike the Law he is under no Obligation to obey it But suppose this pretence to be serious without design or disguise is it fit the Laws of the Common-wealth should ask leave of every Ignorant and Well-meaning man whether they shall be Laws or no A weak Conscience is the product of a weak Understanding and he is a very subtil man that can find the difference between a tender Head and a tender Conscience and therefore if Princes must consult their Subjects Consciences in all their Laws this would make all the Wisdom of Government submit to the power of folly and ignorance And when any person pleads weakness or tenderness of Conscience against the obligation of any Law his meaning is that he is not of the same Judgment and Opinion with his Governours and 't is wise and handsom and becoming the Grandeur or Authority in all its Laws to comply with the learned apprehensions of every honest and illiterate Peasant who if he be not satisfied in their determinations may cancel their obligations as to himself and if they offer to force this honest man to submission they invade the sacred and inviolable liberty of a tender Conscience So full of Anarchy are all these mens pretences And therefore Governours must look to the Publick and let tender Consciences look to themselves Laws must be of an unyielding and inflexible temper and not such soft and easie things as to bend to every mans humour that they ought to command And unless Government be managed by some setled Principles it must for ever remain weak and unfixed Princes must not be diffident in their Rules and Maxims of Policy but as they must set down some to themselves so they must act up roundly to them For all Changes of the Publick Laws and Methods of Policy sadly weaken if they do not utterly unsettle the Common-wealth in that Prescription is at least in the practice of the World the greatest strength and security of Government 't is indeed the Fountain of Authority and the thing that vests Princes with their Prerogatives and no Power what right or title soever it may plead can ever be firmly establish'd till it can plead the Warrant and Authority of Prescription And therefore if Princes will be resolute and if they will Govern so they must be they may easily make the most stubborn Consciences bend to their Commands but if they will not they must submit themselves and their Power to all the follies and passions of their Subjects For there are no conceits so extravagant or so pernicious that may not pass for Principles of Conscience In brief there is nothing so ungovernable as a tender Conscience or so restive and inflexible as folly or wickedness when hardned with Religion and therefore instead of being complyed with they must be restrain'd with a more peremptory and unyielding rigour than naked and unsanctified Villany else will they quickly discover themselves to be pregnant with greater and more fatal dangers Sect. 2. This stale pretence comes now too late and is so ancient that 't is long since superannuated old Doubts and scruples are like old scandals worn out of date by time and experience They are the natural products of ignorance weakness is their Parent and folly their Nurse and if they improve not into Confidence they never survive their Infancy but of themselves vanish and dissolve into nothing And therefore this pretence having out-lived it self is become its own Answer and Confutation Because men ought not nay they cannot remain so long under Vncertainties and 't is impossible but they should before this time be competently determined as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the things themselves For if in so long a time they have not been able to discover that sinfulness in them they suspected that is sufficient evidence of their being Innocent because their scruples have occasioned them to be so throughly sifted and examined And if after all that hot and vehement contention that has been raised about them it appears not yet wherein they are criminal and chargeable for if it does then the doubt ceases
and such other Irreligious Debaucheries If he may why then they are matters that as directly and immediately relate to Religion as any Rites and Ceremonies of Worship whatsoever and for the Government of which they are as utterly to seek for any Precedent of our Saviour and his Apostles Nay more if this Argument were of any force it would equally deprive the Magistrate of any Power to compel his Subjects to obedience to any of the moral Precepts of the Gospel by secular Laws and Punishments because our Saviour and his Apostles never did it especially when all matters of Morality do as really belong to our spiritual concerns as any thing that relates immediately to Divine Worship and Affairs of meer Religion and therefore if the Civil Magistrate may not compel his Subjects to a right way of Worship with the Civil Sword because this is of a spiritual concernment as is pretended upon the same ground neither may he make use of the same force to compel men to Duties of Morality because they also equally relate to their spiritual Interests Besides the Magistrates Authority in both is founded upon the same Principle viz. The absolute necessity of their due Management in order to the Peace and Preservation of the Common-wealth We derive not therefore his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from any grant of our Saviours but from an antecedent right wherewith all Sovereign Power was indued before ever he was born into the world forasmuch as the same Providence that intrusted Princes with the Government of Humane Affairs must of necessity have vested them in at least as much Power as was absolutely necessary to the nature and ends of Government § 15. But further yet all the ways our Saviour has appointed in the Gospel for the advancement and propagation of Religion were prescribed to Subjects not to Governours and this indeed is certain that no private person can have any power to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel for if he had he would upon that very account cease to be a Private person and be vested with a Civil Power But that no Magistrate may do this will remain to be proved till they can produce some express prohibition of our Saviour to restrain him and till that be done 't is but a strange rate of arguing when they would prove that Magistrates may not use any coercive Power to promote the Interests of Religion because this is forbidden to their Subjects especially when 't is to be considered that Christ and his Apostles acted themselves in the capacity of Subjects to the Common-wealth they lived in and so could neither use themselves nor impart to others any coercive Power for the advancement and propagation of their Doctrine but were confined to such prudent and peaceable Methods as were lawful for persons in their condition to make use of i. e. humble Intreaties and Perswasions Our Saviour never took any part of the Civil Power upon himself and upon that score could not make penal and coercive Laws the power of Coertion being so certainly inseparable from the Supreme Civil Power But though he back'd not his Commandments with temporal punishments because his Kingdom was not of this world yet he enforced them with the threatnings of Eternity which carry with them more compulsion upon mens Consciences than any Civil Sanctions can For the only reason why Punishments are annex'd to Laws is because they are strong Motives to Obedience and therefore when our Savour tied his Laws upon mankind under Eternal Penalties he used as much force to drive us to obedience as if he had abetted them with temporal Inflictions So that the only reason why he bound not the Precepts of the Gospel upon our Consciences by any secular Compulsories was not because Compulsion was an improper way to put his Laws in execution for then he had never established them with more enforcing sanctions but only because himself was not invested with any secular Power and so could not use those methods of Government that are proper to its Jurisdiction § 16. And therefore the Power wherewith Christ intrusted the Governours of his Church in the Apostolical Age was purely spiritual they had no Authority to inflict temporal Punishments or to force men to submit to their Canons Laws and Penalties they only declared the Laws of God and denounced the threatnings annexed to them having no Coercive Power to inflict the Judgments they declared and leaving the event of their Censures to the Divine Jurisdiction Though alas all this was too weak to attain the ends of Discipline viz. to reclaim the offending Person and by example of his Censure to awe others into Obedience and could have but little influence upon the most stubborn and notorious Offenders For to what purpose should they drive one from the Communion of the Church that has already renounced it To what purpose should they deny him the Instruments and Ministries of Religion that cares not for them To what purpose should they turn him out of their Society that has already prevented them by forsaking it How should offenders be reclaim'd by being condemn'd to what they chuse How should they be scared by threatnings that they neither fear nor believe And if they will turn Apostates how can they be awed back into their Faith by being told they are so And therefore because of the weakness of this spiritual Government to attain the ends of Discipline and because that the Governours of the Church being subject to those of the Common-wealth they were not capable of any coercive Power 't is wonderfully remarkable how God himself was pleased to supply their want of Civil Jurisdiction by his own immediate Providence and in a miraculous manner to inflict the Judgments they denounced that if their Censures could not affright refractory Offenders into Obedience his Dreadful execution of them might For 't is notoriously evident from the best Records of the Primitive and Apostolical Ages that the Divine Providence was pleased to abet the Censures of the Church by immediate and Miraculous inflictions from Heaven In those times torments and diseases of the Body were the usual consequents of Excommunication and this was as effectual to awe men into subjection to the Ecclesiastical Government as if it had been endued with coercive Iurisdiction For this consists only in a power of inflicting temporal punishments and therefore when the Anathema's of the Church were attended with such Inflictions Criminals must have as much reason to dread the Rod of the Apostles as the Sword of the Civil Magistrate in that it carried with it a power of inflicting temporal Penalties either of Death as on Ananias and Sapphira or of Diseases as on Elymas the Sorcerer And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith St. Paul so often threatens to lash the factious Corinthians into a more quiet and peaceable temper Thus 1 Cor. 4. 21. What will ye shall I come unto you with a
apprehending that way now established by Law defective and superstitious they cannot but be bound in Conscience to endeavour its utter ruine and subversion which Design when they have once compassed they entertaining the same Opinion of each other as they do of us they will turn their Weapons upon themselves and with as much Zeal contrive each others destruction as they did ours and the result of all will be That the Common-wealth will be eternally torn with intestine Quarrels and Commotions till it grow so wise again as to suppress all Parties but one that is till it return to that wisdom and Prudence from whence it parted by Toleration And therefore nothing can be more vulgarly observable than that though all Parties whilst under the Power of a more prevailing interest have cried up Toleration as the most effectual instrument to shake and dissettle the present frame of things yet have they no sooner effected their Design than they have immediately put in to scramble for the Supremacy themselves which if they once obtain they have ever used with as much rigour and severity upon all Dissenters as they ever felt themselves So that this Principle of Liberty of Conscience much resembles that of community of Goods for as those men cry up equality of Estates as a most reasonable piece of Justice that have but a small share themselves yet whenever their Pretence succeeds and they have advanced their own Fortunes and served their own turns they are the first that shall then cry it down and oppress their inferiours with more cruelty than ever themselves felt whilst in a lower Station so do those whose private perswasions happen to cross the publick Laws easily pretend to Liberty of Conscience One must yield and because their stubborn Zeal scorns to bend to the Commands of Authority these must be forced to give place to that So that when Conscience and Authority happen to encounter all the Dispute is Which shall have most force in Publick Laws whether my own or my Princes opinion But how plausibly soever this Notion may be pleaded by men out of Power 't is ever laid aside as soon as ever they come into it and the greatest pretenders to it when oppress'd are always the greatest Zealots against it as soon as it has mounted themselves into Power as well knowing it to be the most effectual Engine to overturn any settled Frame of things In brief 'T is Reformation men would have and not Indulgence which they only seek to gain ground for the working of their Mines and planting of their Engines to subvert the established state of things For if we demand wherefore they would be born with in their Dissentions from our way of Worship They answer Because they cannot conform to it in Conscience i. e. because they apprehend it sinful for otherwise they must think themselves guilty of the most intollerable Schism and Rebellion to create Factions and Divisions in a Common-wealth when they may avoid it without any violence to their Consciences But if they apprehend our way of Worship upon any account sinful then are they plainly obliged in Conscience to root it out as displeasing to Almighty God and in its stead to plant and establish their own And now if this be the Issue of this Principle let Magistrates consider how fatal and hazardous alterations in Religion have ever been to the Common-wealth They cannot pluck a Pin out of the Church but the State immediately shakes and totters and if they will allow their Subjects the liberty of changing and innovating in Religion as it is apparent from the Premisses they must if they allow them their pretences to liberty of Conscience they do but give them advantages for Eternal Popular Commotions and Disturbances Sect. 7. Fourthly A bare Indulgence of Men in the free exercise of any Religion different from the publick profession can lay no obligation upon the Party Perhaps when the rigour of a Law under which they have smarted a while is at first relaxed this indeed they may at present take for a kindness because 't is really a favour in comparison to their former Condition and therefore as long as the memory of that remains fresh upon their minds it may possibly affect them with some grateful Resentments But alas these affections quickly vanish and then what before was Favour is now become Iustice and their Prince did but restore them to their just and lawful rights when he took off his Tyrannical Laws and Impositions from the Consciences of his best Subjects While those unjust Laws were in force he oppress'd and persecuted the People of God and therefore when he cancels them all the kindness he is guilty of is only to repent of his Tyranny and Persecution which is no favour and by consequence no Obligation And what is more considerable all the dissenting Parties he permits and does not countenance he disobliges Is this all the kindness say they he can afford the Godly not to persecute them by Law and force to their utter ruine Are we beholden to him barely for suffering us to live in our native Soil and enjoy only our fundamental Priviledges Is this all the reward and encouragement we deserve Are not we the praying and serious People of the Nation for whose sakes only the Lord is pleased to stay among us And were it not for us would he not perfectly forsake and abandon it And is this all our requital to be thus slighted and thus despised only for our zeal to God and serviceableness to the Publick by that power and interest we have in him to keep him among us whilst vain and useless persons are countenanced and encouraged with all places of Office and Employment These are the natural results of the minds of men who think themselves scorn'd and disrespected especially when flush'd with any conceit and high opinion of their own Godliness And 't is an eternal Truth That for the godly Party not to be uppermost is and ever will be Persecution For nothing more certain than that all men entertain the best opinion of their own Party otherwise they had never enrolled themselves in it and therefore if the State value them not at as high a rate as they do themselves they are scorn'd and injured because they have not that favour and countenance they deserve And so unless they have Publick encouragement as well as indulgence they have reason to be discontented because they have not their due And if the Prince do not espouse their Party he undervalues and consequently disgusts them and if he joyn himself to any other as there is a necessity of his owning some Profession he does not only disoblige but alienate their Affections by embracing an Interest they both hate and scorn For where-ever there is difference of Religion there is opposition too because men would never divide from one another but upon grounds of real dislike and therefore they are always contrary in those Differences
persons have any serious sense of their own ignorance they can scarce have a stronger obligation to obedience And they can never be so confident in any action as when they obey because then they have the Publick Wisdom to warrant them and their own Folly to excuse them That is they follow the best guide men are capable of in their Circumstances And a Subject that is Conscious of his own weakness when he resigns up himself to the Wisdom of his Superiours in matters doubtful and disputable is in effect governed by the best and safest Dictates of his own Conscience which unless it be hardned with pride and insolence cannot but perswade him that he ought to presume them more competent Judges of the fitness and expediency of Publick Laws whose work and office it is to understand them than himself who is wholly ignorant of the management and transaction of Publick Affairs This is the most common Principle of humane life and all men practise by it in all their concerns but those of Religion And that is the reason it has ever been debauched with so many follies and frenzies because silly people will not submit their Consciences to any thing but their own giddy Imaginations Whereas if they would but condescend to the same Rules of Government in matters of Religion as they do in all their other affairs obedience to Authority might be secured without any violence to Conscience seeing no Conscience that is acted by wise and sober perswasions will ever be stiff in doubtful and uncertain Cases against the determinations of the Publick Wisdom Because such men being sensible how unable they are to govern themselves they know they can never act more safely than when they are governed by their Superiors And being they cannot pretend to trust confidently enough to their own conduct how can they proceed upon wiser and more reasonable grounds than by committing themselves to the Publick Wisdom In which though possibly they might be misguided yet they may secure themselves that God who values integrity more than subtilty will pardon their weakness and reward their meekness and humility But for a man to plead weakness of Conscience for disobedience to Government is just as if a Child in Minority should reject the advice of his Guardians because he has not wit enough to know when he is well advised or as if a Fool should refuse to be governed because he has not reason enough to discern when he is well managed or as if a Blind Man should not trust to the conduct of a Guide because he is not able to judge when he is misled Humility and Condescension are the most proper duties of weakness and ignorance and meekness and simplicity the only ornaments of a tender Conscience And one would think that men whose confidence exceeds not their wit should be strangely wary of censuring the wisdom of Authority And therefore it is but a very odd pretence to weakness of Conscience when it appears in nothing but being too strong for Government and that man that pretends to it does not seriously believe himself if he presumes he is wise enough to govern his Governors And so does every one that thinks the perswasions of his own mind of sufficient force to cancel the obligations of their commands It is an handsom piece of modesty for one who pretends to weakness of Conscience when his Prince requires his obedience to give him counsel to advise him how to govern the Kingdom to blame and correct the Laws and to tell him how this and the other might be mended And What can be more fulsom than to see men under pretences of great strictness and severity of Conscience to cherish stubbornness and vanity and to endure neither Laws nor Superiours because they are proud enough to think themselves more Holy than their Neighbours What a malapert and insolent piece of pride is it for every Prating Gossip and illiterate Mechanick that can mark themselves with some distinctive names and Characters of Godliness to scoff and jibe at the wisdom of publick Authority to affront the Laws and Constitutions of a Church to pity and disdain the lamentable ignorance of Learned Men and to Libel all sorts of people that are not of their own Rendez-vous especially their Superiors with slanders and idle stories What strange effects are these of a diffident and timorous Conscience A Conscience that knows it self to be acted by certain and infallible Principles how could it be more head-strong and confident And therefore if we compare these mens practices with their pretences What can be more evident than that it is not Tenderness of Conscience that emboldens them to fall out with all the World but pride and vanity and insolence For nothing else could possibly drive them on with so peremptory a sail against so strong and so united a torrent For a Conscience that is only weak and tender is of a yielding and pliable temper it is soft and innocent modest and teachable apt to comply with the Commands of its Superiours and easily capable of all impressions tending to Peace and Charity but when it is stubborn and confident in its own apprehensions then it is not tender but hardy and humoursom And as queasie as it is in reference to its Superiours Commands it is usually strong enough to digest Rebellion and Villany and whilst it rises against a poor innocent Ceremony it is scarce ever stirred with Schism Faction and Cruelty Now to permit these men their liberty who mistake insolence for tenderness of Conscience than which nothing more easie or more natural for people that are both proud and simple is to suffer ignorance to ride in Triumph because it is proud and confident and to indulge zealous Idiots in their folly because they threaten Authority to be peevish and scrupulous to their Laws and to infest their Government with a sullen and cross-grain'd Godliness an Artifice not much unlike the tricks of some froward Children and therefore such untoward and humoursom Saints must be lashed out of their sullenness as Children are into compliance and better manners otherwise they will be an eternal annoyance to all Government with the childish and whining pretences of a weak and crasie Conscience In brief I appeal to all mankind that have but any tolerable conception of the nature and design of Religion Whether it be not much more becoming the temper of a Christian Spirit to comply with the commands of their Superiors that are not apparently sinful in order to the Peace and Setlement of the Church than to disturb its quiet by a stubborn and peremptory adherence to our own Doubts and Scruples For What is there in Christianity of greater importance than the vertues of meekness peaceableness and humility And in what can these great duties more discover themselves than in the offices and civilities of humble Obedience that contains in it all that is most amiable and most useful in the Christian Religion 'T
is modesty 't is meekness 't is humility 't is love 't is peacebleness 't is ingenuity 'T is a duty so pregnant with Vertue in it self and of such absolute necessity to the happiness of mankind That there is scarce anything can come in competition with it whose obligation it will not at the first appearance utterly cancel and evacuate as I shall more fully demonstrate in the ensuing Propositions In the mean while we see what is to be done in the case of tender Consciences If they are acted by calm and peaceable Principles they will not desire liberty if they are not they will not deserve it For if they are humble and modest they will chuse to submit to the will of their Superiors rather than by thwarting them do what in themselves lies to discompose the publick Peace And therefore if they will rather venture to embroil the Common-wealth and contradict Authority than forego their own peremptory Determinations and make their Superiors comply and bend to their confidence it is because they are criminally bold and imperious in their own conceits and are of a temper too stubborn insolent and presumptuous to be endured in any Society of men Sect. 4. Doubts and Scruples are so far from being sufficient Warranty of disobedience that they are outweighed by the Obligations of the Law For if I doubt concerning the injustice of my action I must also of necessity doubt of the injustice of my disobedience and unless I am absolutely certain that the Law is evil I am sure disobedience to it is And therefore I am always as forcibly bound to obey a scrupled Law for fear of the sin of disobedience as to disobey it for fear it commands an essential evil So that a doubting Conscience must always at least as much fright us from disobeying as from obeying any Humane Law Though indeed if we would speak properly the commands of Authority perfectly determine and evacuate all doubtfulness and irresolution of Conscience For if it before hung in suspence concerning the lawfulness of the action and unresolved Whether it were good or evil as not having competent reason to incline to one side rather than to the other yet when Authority casts its commands into the Scale if in some mens Consciences they weigh any thing they cannot but add weight more than enough to determine the Judgment and incline the Balance For if the Reasons on both sides were equal before than thet side that gains this accession has most reason now So that Laws do not force us to obey them with a doubting Conscience but remove our doubts at the same time they require our obedience because they destroy the equal probability of the two opinions and determine the Conscience to a confidence of acting by directing it to follow the safest and most probable perswasion In that no practice or opinion that is capable of doubt or uncertainty can be of equal importance with the prime Duties of obedience and humility and the matter of all doubts and scruples is ever of too small and inconsiderable a consequence to be laid in the Balance against the great and weighty mischiefs of disobedience If indeed the commands of Authority enjoyned any thing absolutely and apparently evil and against the great and unalterable Rules of truth and goodness in such exigents Da veniam Imperator would be a fair and civil excuse But matters of a less importance will not pay the charges of a persecution it is not worth the while to suffer for little things and that man has but the just reward of his own folly that would suffer Martyrdom in the cause of an indifferent Ceremony or for the truth of a Metaphysical Notion And the suggestion of Optatus to the Donatists who were so forward to cast away their lives in defence of their little Schism was smart and severe Nulli dictum est nega Deum nulli dictum est incende Testamentum nulli dictum est aut thus pone aut Basilicas dirue Istae enim res solent Martyria generare Matters wherein the Being of Religion and the Truth of Christianity were directly concerned were worth the dying for and would quit the costs of Martyrdom but no indifferent Rites or Ceremonies were of value enough to pay for the lives of men And the Zealots of the Pars Donati who were so ambitious to suffer Imprisonment Confiscation of Goods Banishment and Death it self out of a pertinacious resolution against some established customs and usages of the Church could never be rewarded in any other Heaven but the Paradise of Fools Things that are essentially evil no change or variety of Circumstances can make good and therefore no commands of any Superior can ever warrant or legitimate their practice But then these are always matters of the greatest and most weighty importance and of an apparent and palpable obliquity such as Blasphemy Murther Injustice Cruelty Ingratitude c. that are so clearly and intrinsically evil that no end how good or great soever can ever carry with it goodness enough to abate or evacuate their Malice But as for all matters that are not so apparently good or evil but are capable of doubt and uncertainty their Morality is of so small importance that it can never stand in competition with the obligations and conveniences of the great Duty of obedience And thus when the Apostles were forbidden by the Jewish Sanhedrim to Preach the Name of Iesus Acts 5. 29. they desired to be excused upon no other account but of an express command from God himself in a matter of great importance and apparent necessity Our Blessed Saviour coming into the World with a Commission from its Supream Governour to make Laws and the Holy Apostles having an infallible assurance of his Divine Authority from his great manifest and undeniable Miracles the most certain and unquestionable credentials that Heaven can send to the Sons of Men they could not but lie under an indispensable obligation to give assent to his Message and obedience to his Commands and that out of duty to the Supream Governour of the Universe from whose unquestionable Laws no other Authority can ever derogate because it is all of an inferiour nature But to apply this Rule which the Apostles never made use of but in a case of certain absolute and notorious injustice to matters of a small doubtful and uncertain nature is absolutely inconsistent with the quiet of Government and infinitely distant from the intention of the Apostles Their Plea was in a case of great evident and unquestionable necessity But what warrant is that for my disobedience when I only fear or fancy the Law to be unjust Which if it were so is not of moment enough to weigh against the mischiefs and enormities that follow upon disobedience And therefore in all doubtful and less considerable cases that side on which obedience stands must ever carry it and no man that is either wise or good will ever trouble
his Governours with nice and curious disputes the Authority of the Law stifles all scruples and trifling objections And thus where there was no apparent repugnancy to the Law of God we find none more compliant and conformable in all other things than the Apostles freely using any Customs of the Synagogue or Iewish Church that were not expresly cancelled by some Divine Prohibition But further this their Apology is as forcible a Plea in concerns of Civil Justice and common honesty as in Matters of Religion it holds equally in both in cases of a certain and essential injustice and fails equally in both in doubtful and less material cases and was as fairly urged by that famous Lawyer Papinian who upon this account when the Emperor commanded him to defend and justifie the lawfulness of Parricide chose rather to die than to Patronize so monstrous a villany Here the wickedness was great and palpable But in matters more doubtful and less material where the case is nice and curious and not capable of any great Interest or great reason there Obedience out-weighs and evacuates all Doubts Jealousies and suspicions And what wise or honest man will offend or provoke his Superiours upon thin pretences and for little regards And if every man that can raise doubts and scruples and nice Exceptions against a Law shall therefore set himself free from its obligation then farewel all Peace and all Government For what more easie to any man that understands the Fundamental Grounds and Reasons of Moral Equity than to pick more material quarrels against the Civil Laws of any Common-wealth than our Adversaries can pretend to against our Ecclesiastical Constitutions And now shall a Philosopher be excused from obedience to the Laws of his Country because he thinks himself able to make exceptions to their Prudence and Convenience and to prove them not so useful to the Publick nor so agreeable to the Fundamental Rules of natural Justice and Equity as himself could have contrived What if I am really perswaded that I can raise much more considerable objections against Littletons Tenures than ever these men have or shall be able to produce against our Ceremonial Constitutions Though it be easie to be mistaken in my conceit yet whether I am or am not it is all one if I am confident And now it would be mightily conducive to the interests of Justice and Publick Peace for me and all others of my Fond Perswasion in this particular to make Remonstrances to the Laws of the Land to Petition the King and Parliament to leave us at the liberty of our own Conscience and Discretion to follow the best Light God has given us for the setlement of our own estates because we think we can do it more exactly according to the Laws of Natural Iustice than if we are tied up to the positive Laws of the Land Thus that groundless and arbitrary maxim of the Law That inheritances may lineally descend but not lineally ascend whereby the Father is made uncapable of being immediate Heir to the Son would be thought by a Philosopher prejudicial to one of the most equal and most ingenuous Laws of Nature viz. The gratitude of Children to Parents which this Law seems in a great measure to hinder by alienating those things from them whereby we are best able to express it What if I have been happy in a loving and tender Father that has been strangely solicitous to leave me furnished with all the comforts and conveniences of life that declined not to forego any share of his own ease and happiness to procure mine that has spent the greatest part of his care and industry to bless me according to the proportion of his abilities with a good fortune and a good education and has perhaps out of an over-tender solicitude for my welfare reduc'd himself to great streights and exigences How monstrous unnatural must the contrivance of this Law appear to me that when the bounty of Providence has blest me with a fortune answerable to the good old Mans desires and endeavours if I should happen to be cut off before him by an untimely death all that whereby I am able to recompence his Fatherly tenderness should in the common and ordinary course of Law be conveyed from him to another person the stream of whose affections was confined to another Channel and who being much concerned for his own Family could in all probability be but little concerned for me What an unnatural and unjust Law is this that designs as far as it can to cut off the streams of our natural Affections and disposes of our possessions contrary to the very first tendencies and obligations of Nature So easie a thing is it to talk little Plausibilities against any Laws whose obligation is positive and not of a prime and absolute necessity And yet down-right Rebellion it would be if I or any man else should refuse subjection to these and the like Laws upon these the like pretences And thus we see is the case all the way equal between Laws Civil and Laws Ecclesiastical In all matters greatly and notoriously wicked the nature of the action out-weighs the duty of Obedience but in all cases less certain and less material the duty of Obedience out-weighs the nature of the action And this may suffice to shew from the Subject Matters of all doubts and scruples That they are not of consideration great enough to be opposed to the commands of Authority And this leads me from the matter of a scrupulous Conscience to consider its Authority And therefore Sect. 5. As the objects of a scrupulous Conscience are of too mean importance to weigh against the mischiefs of Disobedience so are its obligations too weak to prevail against the commands of Publick Authority For when two contradictory obligations happen to encounter the greater ever cancels the less because if all good be eligible then so are all the degrees of goodness too And therefore to that side on which the greater good stands our duty must ever incline otherwise we despise all those degrees of goodness it contains in it above the other For in all the Rules of Goodness there is great inequality and variety of degrees some are prescribed for their own native excellency usefulness and others purely for their subserviency to these Now when a greater a lesser virtue happen to clash as it frequently falls out in the transaction of Humane Affairs there the less always gives place to the greater because it is good only in order to it and therefore where its subordination ceases there its goodness ceases and by consequence its obligation For no subordinate or instrumental dutys are absolutly commanded or commended but become good or evil by their Accidental Relations their goodness is not intrinsick but depends upon the goodness of their end and their being directed to a good end if they are not intrinsically evil makes them virtuous because their Morality is entirely relative and
any Wars are commenced upon just and warrantable grounds And yet how few are they that take upon them to judge their lawfulness All men here think their Princes command a sufficient warrant to serve him and satisfie themselves in this that in case the cause prove to be unjust the fault liesentirely upon him that commands and not at all on him who has nothing to do but obey And if it were otherwise that no Subject were bound to take up Arms till himself had approved the justness of the cause Commonwealths must be bravely secured and their safety must lie at the mercy of every humorsome and pragmatical Fellow And yet to this piece of arrogance do men tempt themselves when they affect to be thought more godly than their Neighbors It is a gallant thing to understand Religion better than their Superiors and to pity their ignorance in the great Mysteries of the Gospel and by seeming to compassionate their weakness to despise their Authority But if Princes will suffer themselves to be controul'd by the pride and insolence of these contentious Zealots they do but tempt them to slight both their persons and their Government and if they will endure to be checked in their Laws Spiritual and Government of the Church by every Systematical Theologue and most not to say the best of our Adversaries are little better they may as well bear to see themselves affronted in their Laws Civil and Government of the State by every Village-Attorney and Solicitor Well then all men that are in a state of Government are bound in all matters doubtful and disputable to submit the dictates of Private Conscience to the determinations of Publick Authority Nor does this oblige any man to act against the dictates of his own Conscience but only by altering the case alters his perswasions i.e. though every man considered absolutely and by himself be bound to follow his own private judgment yet when he is considered as the member of a Society then must be govern'd then he must of necessity be bound to submit his own private thoughts to publick determinations And it is the dictate of every mans Conscience that is not turbulent and seditious that it ought in all things that are not of a great apparent necessity whatever its own private judgment of them is to acquiesce in the determinations of its Governors in order to publick peace and unity For unless this be done there can be nothing but eternal disorders and confusions in the Church in that it is utterly impossible that all men should have the same apprehensions of things and considering the tempers and passions of mankind as impossible that they should not pursue their differences and controversies with too much heat vehemence And therefore unless whatever their own judgments and apprehensions be they are bound in all such cases to acquiesce in the decisions and determinations of the Governors of the Church or Common-wealth in order to its peace and setlement there can be no possible way of avoiding endless squabbles and confusions And unless this be a fundamental Rule dictate of every mans Conscience that as he is bound in all doubtful cases to follow the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the best result of his own private perswasions where he neither has nor is obliged to have any other guide or rule of his actions so he is bound to forego them all provided his plain and necessary duty be secured out of obedience to Authority and in order to the due Government of the Society there never can be any peace or setlement in any Church or Common-wealth in the world And every Conscience that is not thus perswaded is upon that account to be reckoned as seditious and unpeaceable and so to be treated accordingly Sect. 7. He that with an implicite Faith and confidence resigns up his own Reason to any Superior on earth in all things is a Fool and he is as great a Fool to say no worse that will do it in nothing For as all men are immediately subject to God alone in matters of indispensable duty that are not at all concern'd in our present dispute so are they in all other things to condescend to the Decrees and determinations of their lawful Superiors Neither is this to put men upon that supream Folly of renouncing the use and guidance of their own Reasons out of obedience to any mans infallibility For by Reason we mean nothing but the mind of man making use of the wisest and most prudential methods to guid it self in all its actions and therefore it is not confined to any sort of Maxims and Principles in Philosophy but it extends it self to any knowledge that may be gained by Prudence Experience and Observation And hence right Reason when it is imploy'd about the actions of men is nothing else but Prudence and Discretion Now the Reason of any wise and sober man will tell him that it is most Prudent Discreet and Reasonable to forego his own private perswasions in things doubtful and disputable out of obedience to his lawful Superiours because without this the World can never be governed And supposing mens judgments and understandings to be never so much above the Iurisdiction of all Humane Authority and that no man can be bound to submit his Reason to any thing but the Commands of God yet every man ows at least so much civility to the will of his Prince and the peace of his Country as to bring himself to a compliance and submission to the Publick Judgment rather than to disturb the Publick Peace for the gratification of his own Fancy and Opinion Which is no enslaving of his Reason to any mans usurpation over his Faith and Conscience but only a bringing it to a modest compliance in order to the common interests of Humane Society And if it be not a duty of subjection yet it is one of peaceableness and if it be not grounded upon our obligations to the Authority it self yet it is most clearly derived from an higher Obligation that all men are under to advance the welfare of mankind and more particularly of that Society they live in that is antecedent to those of Government which is instituted only in order to the common good And therefore though our duty in such cases could not be deduced from our obligation to any humane Authority yet it clearly arises from that duty of Charity we owe to our Fellow Creatures And though we are not to submit our Vnderstandings to any Humane Power yet we are to the first and Fundamental Laws of Charity which being one of the greatest duties of mankind it is but reasonable to forego all more private and inferior obligations when they stand in competition with it And thus St. Paul notwithstanding he declaimed with so much vehemence against the observation of the Judaical Rites and Ceremonies never scrupled to use them as oft as it was serviceable to the advancement of the Christian Religion
they fool and trifle with the Almighty if true then I could easily tell them the fittest place to say their Prayers in But however 't is pity to abridge them the liberty all men have to abuse themselves but if they will extend this their Priviledge so far as to attaint other mens Reputations I shall only admonish them as a Friend before-hand that there is somebody in the world that will not fail to requite their slanders and false aspersions with their own true Character And so I take my leave of them to address my self to those for whom this Discourse was intended And though I dare not be so sawcy as to teach my Superiours how to Govern the Kingdom out of Ezekiel or the Revelations yet I will presume to put up this single Petition in order to the security of our Publick Peace and Settlement That whatsoever Freedom they may think good to Indulge to Religion they would not suffer Irreligion to share in the Favour nor permit Atheism to appear openly as it begins to do under the Protection of Liberty of Conscience I am not so utterly unacquainted with the Experience of former Ages as to be over-apt to complain of the degeneracy of our own the World I know has ever had its Vicissitudes and Periods of Vertue and Wickedness and all Common-wealths have advanced themselves to their Power and Grandeur by Sobriety and Wisdom and a tender Regard of Religion and from thence have declined again by Softness and Effeminacy by Sacrilege and Prophaneness and a proud Contempt of God and his Worship This is the Circle of Humane Affairs and on these constant Turns depend the Periods and certain Fates of Empires So that though Atheism reigns and prevails more in the present age than in some that went immediately before it yet there have been seasons when it was mounted up to a greater height of Power and Reputation than 't is yet advanced to but then those have always been black and fatal Times and have certainly brought on Changes and Dissolutions of States For the Principles of Irreligion unjoynt the Sinews and blow up the very Foundations of Government This turns all sense of Loyalty into Folly this sets men at Liberty from all the effectual Obligations to Obedience and makes Rebellion as vertuous when ever it either is or is thought as advantageous And therefore it imports Authority to nip this wanton humour in the Bud and to crush it whilst 't is young and tender for as yet it has found but slender entertainment with wise and sober Persons and is only propagated among little and unlearned People discreet men that have not more Religion have yet at least more wit and manners The only Zelots in the Cause are the young Nurslings and small Infantry of the Wits the wild and hair-brain'd Youths of the Town A sort of Creatures that study nothing but Sloth and Idleness that design nothing but Folly and Extravagance that aspire to no higher Accomplishments than fine Phrases terse Oaths and gay Plumes that pretend to no other stock of Learning but a few shavings of Wit gathered out of Plays and Comedies and these they abuse too and labour to pervert their chaste Expressions to Obscene and Irreligious Purposes and Johnson and Fletcher are prophaned as well as the Holy Scriptures They measure the Wit of their Discourse by its Prophaneness and Ribaldry and nothing sets it off so handsomly as neat and fashionable Oaths and the only thing that makes them appear more Witty then other Folk is their daring to be more wicked Their Iests are remarkable for nothing but their Presumption and the picquancy of their Conceit lies in their Boldness Men laugh not so much at the Wit as the Sawciness of their Discourse and because they dare vent such things as a discreet or civil man would scorn to say though he were an Atheist But these shallow fools are proud and ambitious to gain a Name and Reputation for Debauchery they slander themselves with false Impieties and usurp the Wickedness they were never guilty of only to get a Renown in Villany 'T is these Apes of Wit and Pedants of Gentility that would make Atheism the fashion forsooth and Prophaneness the Character of a Gentleman that think it a piece of Gallantry to scoff at Religion droll upon God and make sport with his Laws that account it an Argument of Iudgment and Ingenuity to be above the Follies of Conscience and a height of Courage and Magnanimity at all adventure to brave and defie Heaven and out-dare the Almighty and the noblest part of a gentile Behaviour to counterfeit an Haughty and Supercilious Disdain of Religious Sneeks and to beg all men that are respective to their Consciences for soft and cowardly Fools that are scared with Phantastick and Invisible Powers and easily abused with Tricks and Juglings and Publick Tales Now certainly these Phantastick Changelings must needs be wonderfully qualified to judge of the most serious and most difficult Enquiries in the world Are they not likely think you to search into the deepest Foundations of Religion to weigh and examine all the Arguments for the Being of God and Immortality of the Soul to enquire into the Grounds of the Christian Faith and to take an account of the Truth and Credibility of the Scriptures And when they have so utterly emasculated their Vnderstandings with Softness and Luxury are not they prodigiously able to examine what Agrees or Quarrels with the Dictates of Pure and Impartial Reason Are they not likely to determine what is truely Great and Generous that never heard of any other Maxims of Philosophy but what they have pick'd up at Plays out of the stiff Disputes of Love and Honour And are they not likely to give a wonderful Account of the Record of Ancient Times without which they are utterly unable to judg of the Truth or Falshood of any Religion that were never acquainted with any History unless perhaps that of the Follies and Amours of the French Court And yet how briskly do these giddy Youths determine these and a thousand other Difficult Theories that they never had Learning or Patience enough to understand much less to make an exact and satisfying search into their Truth and Evidence Alas young men you are too rash and forward your confidence swells above your Vnderstandings 'T is not for you to pretend to Atheism 't is too great a Priviledge for Boys and Novices 'T is sawsiness for you to be Prophane and to censure Religion Impudence and ill Manners and whatsoever Rational Pleas Atheism may admit of 't is not for such as you to pretend to Wit and Learning enough to understand them And therefore take heed of exposing your Vanity and Weakness and if you will not be Wise yet at least be Modest Be advised not to set up before your time and better to furnish your Vnderstandings before you vent your wit Consider what a fulsome thing it is that when the
easily may they fire these heady people into tumults and outrages How eagerly will they flow into their Party in spight of all the Power and Opposition of their Governours And how prodigally will they empty their Bags and bring in even their Bodkins and Thimbles and Spoons to carry on the Cause He is a very silly man and understands nothing of the Follies Passions and Inclinations of Humane Nature who fees not that there is no Creature so ungovernable as a Wealthy Fanatick And therefore let not men flatter themselves with idle hopes of Settlement any other way than by suppressing all these dissentions and reducing the minds of men to an Agreement and Vnity in Religious Worship For it is just as impossible to keep different Factions of Religion quiet and peaceable as it is to make the common people wise men and Philosophers If indeed we could suppose them sober and discreet it were then no great danger to leave them to their Liberty but upon the same supposition we may as well let them loose from all the Laws of Government and Policy because if every private man had wit honesty enough to govern himself and his own Actions there would be no need of Publick Laws and Governours And yet upon this impossible Presumption stand all the Pretenses for Liberty of Conscience That if men were permitted it they would use it wisely and peaceably than which 't is hard to suppose a greater Impossibility For the Conscience of the multitude is the same thing with their Wisdom and Discretion and therefore 't is as natural for them to fall into the snare of an abused and vicious Conscience as 't is to be rash foolish For an erroneous Conscience is but one sort of Folly that relates to the Iudgment of their moral Actions in which they are as ignorant and as likely to mistake as in any other Affairs of Humane Life There is no Observation in the world establish'd upon a more certain and universal Experience than that the generality of mankind are not so obnoxious to any sort of Follies and Vices as to wild and unreasonable conceits of Religion and that when their heads are possess'd with them there are no principles so pregnant with mischief and disturbance as they And if Princes would but consider how liable mankind are to abuse themselves with serious and conscientious Villanies they would quickly see it to be absolutely necessary to the Peace and Happiness of their Kingdoms that there be set up a more severe Government over mens Consciences and Religious perswasions than over their Vices and Immoralities For of all Villains the well-meaning Zealot is the most dangerous Such men have no checks of Conscience nor fears of miscarriage to damp their Industry but their Godliness makes them bold and furious and however their Attempts succeed they are sure of the Rewards of Saints and Martyrs And what so glorious as to lose their lives in the Cause of God These men are ever prepared for any mischief if they have but a few active and crafty Knaves to manage and set them on and there is never want of such in any Common-wealth And there needs no other motive to engage their Zeal in any Seditious Attempt than to instil into their minds the Necessity of a thorow Reformation and then you may carry them wheresoever you please and they will never boggle at any Mischief Out-rage or Rebellion to advance the Cause And therefore it concerns the Civil Magistrate to beware of this sort of People above all others as a party that is always ready formed for any Publick Disturbance One would think the world were not now to be taught that there is nothing so difficult to be managed as Godly Zeal or to be appeased as Religious Dissentions People ever did and ever will pursue such Quarrels with their utmost rage and fury and therefore let us be content to govern the world as it ever has been and ever must be govern'd and not be so fond as to trouble our heads with contriving ways of Settling a Nation whilst 't is unsettled by Religion Agreement in this is the first if not the only foundation of Peace and therefore let that be first established upon firm and lasting Principles which it easily may by severe Laws faithfully executed but otherwise never can But till it is done 't is just as wise and safe for a Prince to enrich his Subjects with Trade and Commerce as 't is to load weak and unfinished Foundations with great and weighty Superstructures to conclude all Arguments are to be considered in their proper place and order and 't is but an unskilful and inartificial way of discoursing to argue from less weighty and considerable matters against the first and Fundamental reasons of things and yet of this preposterous Method are those men guilty who talk of the Interests of Trade in opposition to the Interests of Government And therefore for a fuller Answer to this and all other the like pretenses I shall now refer the Reader to my Book where I think I have proved enough to satisfie any man of an ordinary understanding That Indulgence and Toleration is the most absolute sort of Anarchy and that Princes may with less hazard give Liberty to mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences As for my Method 't is plain and familiar and suited to every man's Capacity I have reduced the state of the Controversie to a few easie and obvious Propositions under these I have couch'd all the particular matters concern'd in our present Debates and by Analogy to their Reasonableness have cleared off all Difficulties and Objections and have been careful all along to prove the absolute Necessity of what I assert from the most important ends and designs of Government compared with the Natural Passions and Inclinations of Mankind And whoever offers to talk of these Affairs without special regard both to the Nature of Government and to the Nature of Man may amuse himself with the fine Dreams and Hypotheses of a warm brain but shall be certain to miss the necessary Rules of Life and the most useful measures of practicable Policy that are suited only to the Humours and Passions of men and designed only to prevent their Follies and bridle their Enormities And therefore the main Notion I have pursued has been to make out how dangerous a thing Liberty of Conscience is considering the Tempers and Tendencies of Humane Nature to the most necessary ends and designs of Government A vein of which Reasoning I have been careful to run through all parts and Branches of my Discourse it being vastly the most considerable if not the only thing to be attended to in this Enquiry And as I have kept close to my main Question so have I cautiously avoided all other collateral and unnecessary Disputes and have not confined my self to any Hypothesis nor determined any Controversie in which it was not immediately concern'd but have expressed my
Reasonings in so general terms as that they might be equally forcible upon the minds of all men of howsoever different Perswasions in all other matters And now I have no other Favour or Civility to request of the Reader than that he would suspend his Iudgment till he have seriously perused and weighed all parts of the following Treatise But if he shall pass Sentence upon any part before he has considered the whole he will in all probability put himself to the pains of raising those Objections I have already answered to his hand and perhaps the next thing he condemns may be his own Rashness CHAP. I. A more General Account of the Necessity of an Ecclesiastical Power or Sovereignty over Conscience in matters of Religion The Contents THe Competition between the Power of Princes and the Consciences of Subjects represented The mischiefs that unavoidably follow upon the Exemption of Conscience from the Iurisdiction of the Supreme Power The absolute necessity of its being subject in affairs of Religion to the Governours of the Common-wealth This proved at large because Religion has the strongest influence upon the Peace of Kingdoms and the Interests of Government Religion is so far from being exempted from the Restraints of Laws and Penalties that nothing more requires them 'T is more easie to govern mens Vices than their Consciences because all men are bold and confident in their Perswasions The remiss Government of Conscience has ever been the most fatal miscarriage in all Common-wealths Impunity of Offenders against Ecclesiastical Laws the worst sort of Toleration The Mischiefs that ensue upon the permitting men the Liberty of their Consciences are endless Fanaticism a boundless Folly Affairs of Religion as they must be subject to the Supreme Civil Power so to none other The Civil and Ecclesiastical Iurisdictions issue from the same Necessity of Nature and are founded upon the same Reason of things A brief account of the Original of Civil Power The Original of Ecclesiastical Power the same In the first Ages of the World the Kingly Power and Priestly Function were always vested in the same persons and why When they were separated in the Iewish State the Supremacy was annexed to the Civil Power And so continued until and after our Saviours Birth No need of his giving Princes any new Commission to exercise that power that was antecedently vested in them by so unquestionable a Right And therefore the Scripture rather supposes than asserts it The argument against penal Laws in Religion from the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles answered and confuted The Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction of Princes not derived from any grant of our Saviours but from the natural and antecedent Rights of all Sovereign Power Christ and his Apostles could not use any coercive Iurisdiction because they acted in the capacity of Subjects Their threatnings of Eternity carry in them as much compulsion upon Conscience as secular punishments The power of the Church purely spiritual In the first Ages of the Christian Church God supplied its want of Civil Iurisdiction by immediate and miraculous Inflictions from Heaven Diseases of the Body the usual consequences of Excommunication And this had the same effect as temporal Punishments All this largely proved out of the writings of St. Paul When the Emperors became Christian the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction was reannext to the Civil Power And so continued till the Vsurpation of the Bishops of Rome How since the Reformation the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes has been invaded by some pragmatical Divines Their Confidence has scared Princes out of their Natural Rights Of the clause of Exception annexed to the Jejunium Cecilianum How the Puritans used it to countenance all their unruly and seditious Practices A Conclusion drawn from all the Premisses for the absolute Necessity of the Ecclesiastical Power of Princes § 1. NOtwithstanding that Conscience is the best if not the only security of Government yet has Government never been controul'd or disturb'd so much by any thing as Conscience This has ever rival'd Princes in their Supremacy and pretends to as uncontroulable an Authority over all the Actions and Affairs of humane life as the most absolute and unlimited Power durst ever challenge Are Governours Gods Vicegerents so is this Have they a power of deciding all Controversies so has this Can they prescribe Rules of Virtue and Goodness to their Subjects so may this Can they punish all their Criminal Actions so can this And are they subject and accountable to God alone so is this that owns no superiour but the Lord of Consciences And of the two Conscience seems to be the greater Sovereign and to govern the larger Empire For whereas the Power of Princes is restrain'd to the outward actions of men this extends its Dominion to their inward thoughts Its throne is seated in their minds and it exercises all that Authority over their secret and hidden sentiments that Princes claim over their publick and visible practices And upon this account is it set up upon all occasions to grapple with the Scepters and Swords of Princes and countermand any Laws they think good to prescribe and whenever Subjects have a mind to controul or disobey their Decrees this is immediately prest and engaged to their Party and does not only dictate but vouches all their Remonstrances Do Subjects rebel against their Sovereign 't is Conscience that takes up Arms. Do they murder Kings 't is under the conduct of Conscience Do they separate from the Communion of the Church 't is Conscience that is the Schismatick Do they tye themselves by one Oath to contradict and evacuate another 't is Conscience that imposes it Every thing any man has a mind to is his Conscience and Murther Treason and Rebellion plead its Authority The Annals and Histories of all times and places are too sad a Witness that this great and sacred thing has ever been abused either through the Folly of some or Hypocrisie of others to patronize the most desperate Mischiefs and Villanies that were ever acted § 2. Here then we see is a Competition between the Prerogative of the Prince and that of Conscience i. e. every private mans own judgment and perswasion of things The judgment of the Magistrate inclines him to Command that of the Subject to Disobey and the Dictates of his Conscience countermand the Decrees of his Prince Now is there not likely to be untoward doings when two Supreme Powers thus clash and contradict each other For what power would be left to Princes if every private mans perswasion for that is his Conscience may give check to their Commands Most mens minds or Consciences are weak silly and ignorant things acted by fond and absurd principles and imposed upon by their vices and their passions so that were they entirely left to their own conduct in what mischiefs and confusions must they involve all Societies Let Authority command what it please they would do what they list And what is this but a state
of perfect Anarchy in which every man does what is good in his own eyes And therefore whilst men contend for the Sovereign Empire of their Consciences and invest it with the Royal supremacy by making it subject and accountable to none but God alone they do in effect but usurp their Prince's Crown defie his Authority and acknowledge no Governour but themselves For seeing that Conscience is nothing but the judgment and opinion of their own Actions if this be exempt from the Commands of Governours and if men not only may but always ought to comply with their own Dictates when they oppose their Decrees 't is easie to determine whether themselves or their Governors be vested with the Supreme Authority In brief every single person is subject to two Supreme Powers the Laws of his Prince and the Dictates of his Conscience i. e. to his own and his Princes Opinion and therefore if the Supreme Power of the Prince must give place to that of his Conscience it ceases upon that score to be Supreme because there is a Superior Authority that can countermand all its Laws and Constitutions What then is to be done in this case Who shall arbitrate between these two mighty rival Powers and so justly assign the true bounds of their respective Dominions that Princes may never intrench upon the rights of Conscience nor Conscience lay waste the rights of Princes but both may act within their proper spheres without invading each others Territories For whenever their Powers happen to interfere the quarrel quickly proceeds to all the mischiefs and confusions of War For there is not any thing so tender or so unruly as Conscience if Authority curb it too severely it grows wild and furious and impatient of all restraints if it permit it an unbridled liberty it soon runs it self into all the mischiefs and enormities in the world And therefore it must be managed with equal tenderness and severity and as it must be guided by wise and sober Laws else it grows giddy and exorbitant so must it not be provoked to resistance by Tyranny and Oppression for if it once put the Sword into Subjects hands it proves of all Rebels the most fatal and implacable and is the best Commander of a Rebellious Army in the world We see then that 't is a matter of equal difficulty and importance to avoid all the mischiefs and calamities that naturally follow upon the Contentions of these two Supreme Powers 'T is difficult to bring them to terms of Accommodation because neither of them will own any Superiour that may umpire their Controversie and yet that this should be done is absolutely necessary to the Peace Settlement and Tranquillity of all Common-wealths § 3. And therefore 't is the design of this Discourse by a fair and impartial Debate to compose all their Differences adjust all their quarrels and contentions and settle things upon their true and proper foundations Which I think may be effectually enough perform'd by these two considerations 1. By proving it to be absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Common-wealth should be vested with a Power to govern and conduct the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion 2. By shewing this to be so certain and undoubted a truth that it is and must be acknowledged by its fiercest Adversaries and that those who would deprive the supreme Civil Power of its Authority in reference to the Conduct of the worship of God are forced to allow it in other more material parts of Religion though they are both liable to the same inconveniences and objections And this will oblige me to state the true extent of the Magistrates power over Conscience in reference to Divine Worship by shewing it to be the very same with his Power over Conscience in matters of Morality and all other Affairs of Religion Under one of which two Considerations I shall have occasion to state the most material Questions and to answer the most considerable Objections that occur in this Controversie And I do not question but things may be made out with that demonstrative evidence and settled upon such safe and moderate principles as may abundantly satisfie every mans Conscience how nice and curious soever provided it be not debauch'd with vice and wicked principles but if it be then 't is easie to make it appear both the Magistrates Duty and Interest to punish such vicious and diseased Conscience as much as all other immorality § 4. First then 't is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Tranquillity of the Commonwealth which though it be the prime and most important end of Government can never be sufficiently secured unless Religion be subject to the Authority of the Supreme Power in that it has the strongest influence upon humane Affairs and therefore if the Sovereign Power cannot order and manage it it would be but a very incompetent Instrument of publick happiness would want the better half of it self and be utterly weak and ineffectual for the ends of Government For 't is certain nothing more governs the minds of men than the apprehensions of Religion this leads or drives them any way And as true Piety secures the publick weal by taming and civilizing the passions of men and inuring them to a mild gentle and governable spirit So superstition and wrong notions of God and his Worship are the most powerful engines to overturn its settlement And therefore unless Princes have Power to bind their Subjects to that Religion that they apprehend most advantageous to publick Peace and Tranquillity and restrain those Religious mistakes that tend to its subversion they are no better than Statues and Images of Authority and want that part of their Power that is most necessary to a right discharge of their Government For what if the minds of men happen to be tainted with such furious and boysterous Conceptions of Religion as incline them to stubborness and Sedition and make them unmanageable to the Laws of Government shall not a Prince be allowed to give check to such unruly and dangerous Perswasions If he may then 't is clear that he is endued with a power to conduct Religion and that must be subject to his Dominion as well as all other Affairs of State But if he may not then is he obliged in some cases tamely to permit his Subjects to ruine and overturn the Common-wealth For if their wild and capricious humours are not severely bridled by the strictest Laws and Penalties they soon grow headstrong and unruly become always troublesome and often fatal to Princes The minds of the multitude are of a fierce and eager temper apt to be driven without bounds and measures whithersoever their Perswasions hurry them and when they have overheated their unsettled heads with religious rage and fury they grow wild talkative and ungovernable and in their mad and raving fits of zeal break all the restraints of Government and forget all the
laws of order and sobriety Religion sanctifies all their passions anger malice and bitterness are holy fervors in the Cause of God This cancels and dispenses with all the obligations of sobriety And what has prudence to do with Religion this is too hot and eager to be tyed up to its flat and dull formalities Zeal for the Glory of God will both excuse and justifie any Enormity There can be no Faction or Rebellion in carrying on the Interests of the Godly Party and the great work of a thorough Reformation must not be trusted to the care of carnal and lukewarm Politicians And by these and the like pretences do they easily destroy the reverence of all things Sacred and Civil to propagate any wild Propositions are arm'd with Religion and led on by the Spirit of God to disturb the Publick Peace kill Kings and overthrow Kingdoms And this has ever been the bane and reproach of Religion in all times and places and there is scarce a Nation in the world that has not felt the miseries and confusions of an Holy War and the Annals of all Ages are full of sad Stories to this purpose § 5. And therefore to exempt Religion and the Consciences of men from the Authority of the Supreme Power is but to expose the peace of Kingdoms to every wild and Fanatick Pretender who may when ever he pleases under pretences of Reformation thwart and unsettle Government without controul seeing no one can have any power to restrain the perswasions of his Conscience And Religion will be so far from being at liberty from the Authority of the Civil Power that nothing in the world will be found to require more of its care and Influence because there is not any other Vice to which the vulgar sort of men are more prone than to Superstition or debauched conceptions concerning God and his Worship nor any that more inclines them to an unruly and seditious temper It inflames their crazy heads with a Furious and Sectarian Zeal and adopts their rankest and most untoward passions into the Duties of Religion And when passion becomes Holy then it can never be exorbitant but the more furious and ungovernable it is so much the more vehement is their zeal for the Glory of God and they that are most peevish and refractory are upon that account the most godly And then all passion and stubbornness in Religious Quarrels must be christned Zeal all Zeal must be sacred and nothing that is sacred can be excessive And now when men act furiously upon these mistakes as all that are possessed with them must what can the issue be but eternal Miseries and Confusions Every Opinion must make a Sect and every Sect a Faction and every Faction when it is able a War and every War is the Cause of God and the Cause of God can never be prosecuted with too much violence And then all sobriety is lukewarmness to be obedient to Government carnal Complyance and not to proceed to Rebellion for carrying on the great work of a thorough Reformation is to want Zeal for the Glory of God And thus are their Vices sanctified by their Consciences malice folly and madness are ever the prevailing ingredients of their superstitious Zeal and Religion only obliges them to be more sturdy and impudent against the Laws of Government and they are now encouraged to cherish those passions in spight of Authority from which the severity of Laws might effectually have restrain'd them were it not for the cross obligations of an untoward Conscience § 6. And for this reason is it that 't is found so nice and difficult a thing to govern men in their perswasions about Religion beyond all the other affairs and transactions of humane life because erroneous Consciences are bold and confident enough to outface Authority whereas persons of debauch'd and scandalous lives being condemn'd by their own Consciences as well as the publick Laws can have nothing to bear them up against the will of their Superiors and restraints of Government But when mens minds are possest with such unhappy Principles of Religion as are more destructive of the Peace and Order of civil Society than open lewdness and debauchery and when the Vertues of the Godly are more pregnant with villany and mischief than the Vices of the wicked and when their Consciences are satisfied in their mischievous and ungovernable perswasions and when they seriously believe that they approve themselves to God by being refractory and irreclamable in their Fanatick Zeal then how easie is it to defie Authority and trample upon all its threatnings and penalities And those Laws that would awe a prophane and irreligious Person at least into an outward compliance shall but exasperate a boisterous Conscience into a more vehement and seditious disobedience Now when 't is so difficult for Magistrates either to remove these Religious Vices or to bridle their unruliness they must needs find it an incomparably harder task to restrain the extravagancies of Zeal than of Lewdness and Debauchery And therefore seeing the multitude is so inclinable to these mistakes of Religion and seeing when they are infected with them they grow so turbulent and unruly I leave it to Governours themselves to judge whether it does not concern them with as much vigilance and severity either to prevent their rise or suppress their growth as to punish any the foulest crimes of Immorality And if they would but seriously consider into what exorbitances peevish and untoward principles about Religion naturally improve themselves they could not but perceive it to be as much their concernment to punish them with the severest inflictions as any whatsoever Principles of Rebellion in the State § 7. And this certainly has ever been one of the most fatal miscarriages of all Governours in that they have not been aware of this fierce and implacable enemy but have gone about to govern unruly Consciences by more easie and remiss Laws than those that are only able to suppress scandalous and confessed villanies and have thought them sufficiently restrain'd by threatning punishments without inflicting them And indeed in most Kingdoms so little have Princes understood their own Interests in reference to Religion Ecclesiastical Laws have been set up only for Scar-crows being established rather for shew and Form sake than with any design of giving them life by putting them into Execution and if any were so hardy as not to be scared into obedience by the severity of their threatnings they have been emboldned to disobedience by the remisness of their execution till they have not only plaid with the Law it self as a sensless trifle but have scorn'd the weakness of the Power that set it up For there is nothing more certain in experience than that Impunity gives not only warranty but encouragement to Disobedience and by habituating men to controul the Edicts of Authority teaches them by degrees to despise it And this is the main reason why Ecclesiastical Laws have generally proved such
ineffectual instruments of Uniformity because they have either been weakned through want of execution or in a manner cancell'd by the oppositions of Civil Constitutions For when Laws are bound under severe penalties and when the Persons who are to take cognisance of the Crime have not Power enough to punish it or are perpetually check'd and controul'd by a stronger Power no wonder if the Laws be affronted and despised and if instead of bringing mens minds to compliance and subjection they exasperate them into open contumacy Restraint provokes their stubbornness and yet redresses not the mischief And therefore it were better to grant an uncontroul'd Liberty by declaring for it than after having declared against it to grant it by silence and impunity The Prohibition disobliges Dissenters and that is one evil and the impunity allows them Toleration and that is a greater and where Governours permit what their Laws forbid there the Common-wealth must at once lose all the advantages of restraint and suffers all the inconveniences of Liberty So that as they would expect Peace and Settlement they must be sure at first to bind on their Ecclesiastical Laws with the streightest knot and afterward to keep them in force and countenance by the severest Execution in that wild and Fanatick Consciences are too headstrong to be curb'd with an ordinary severity therefore their restraints must be proportion'd to their unruliness and they must be managed with so much a greater care and strictness than all other principles of publick disturbance by how much they are more dangerous unruly § 8. For if Conscience be ever able to break down the restraints of Government and all men have Licence to follow their own perswasions the mischief is infinite and the folly endless and they seldom cease to wander from folly to folly till they have run themselves into all the whimsies and enormities that can debauch Religion or annoy the publick Peace The giddy Multitude are of a restless and stragling humour and yet withalso ignorant and injudicious that there is nothing so strange and uncouth which they will not take up with Zeal and Confidence Insomuch that there never yet was any Common-wealth that gave a real liberty to mens Imaginations that was not suddenly over-run with numberless divisions and subdivisions of Sects as was notorious in the late Confusions when Liberty of Conscience was laid as the Foundation of Settlement How was Sect built upon Sect and Church upon Church till they were advanced to such a height of Folly that the Usurpers themselves could find no other way to work their subversion and put an end to their extravagancies but by overturning their own Foundations and checking their growth by Laws and Penalties The humour of Fanaticising is a boundless folly it knows no restraints and if it be not kept down by the severity of Governours it grows and encreases without end or limit and never ceases to swell it self till it has broke down all the banks and restraints of Government Thus when the Disciplinarians had in pursuit of their own peevish and unreasonable Principles divided from the Church of England others upon a farther improvement of the same principles subdivided from them every new opinion was enough to found a new Church and Sect was spawn'd out of Sect till there were almost as many Churches as Families For when they were once parted from the order sobriety of the Church they lived in nothing could set bounds to their wild and violent Imaginations § 9. Schismaticks always run themselves into the same excess in the Church as Rebels and Seditious Persons do in the State who out of a hatred to Tyranny are restless till they have dissolved the Common-wealth into Anarchy Confusion and because some Kingly Governments have proved Tyrannical will allow no free States but under Republicks As was notorious in all the Apologies for the late Usurpers who took it for granted in general That all Government under a single Person was slavish and oppressive without respect to its particular Constitutions and that the very name of a Common-wealth was a sufficient preservation of the Peoples Liberties notwithstanding that those who managed it were never so Imperious and Arbitrary in the exercise of their Power And in the same manner our Church Dissenters out of abhorrency to the Papal Tyranny and Usurpation upon mens understandings never think the liberty of their Consciences sufficiently secured till they have shaken off all subjection to Humane Authority and because the Church of Rome by her unreasonable Impositions has invaded the Fundamental Liberties of mankind they presently conclude all restraints upon licentious Practices and Perswasions about Religion under the hated name of Popery And some Theological Empericks have so possess'd the peoples heads with this fond conceit that they will see no middle way between spiritual Tyranny and spiritual Anarchy and so brand all restraint of Government in Affairs of Religion as if it were Antichristian and never think themselves far enough from Rome till they are wandred as far as Munster Whereas the Church of England in her first Reformation was not so wild as to abolish all Ecclesiastical Authority but only removed it from those who had unjustly usurp'd it to its proper seat and restrain'd it within its due bounds and limits And because the Church of Rome had clogg'd Christianity with too many garish and burdensome Ceremonies they did not immediately strip her naked of all modest and decent Ornaments out of an over-hot opposition to their too flanting Pomp and Vanity but only cloathed her in such a Dress as became the Gravity and Sobriety of Religion And this is the Wisdom and Moderation of our Church to preserve us sober between two such unreasonable Extremes § 10. But not to run too hastily into particular disputes 't is enough at present to have proved in general the absolute necessity that Affairs of Religion should be subject to Government and then if they be exempt from the Jurisdiction of the Civil Power I shall demand Whether they are subject to any other Power or to none at all If the former then the Supreme Power is not Supreme but is subject to a Superiour in all matters of Religion or rather what is equally absurd there would be two Supreme Powers in every Common-wealth for it the Princes Jurisdiction be limited to Civil Affairs and the concerns of Religion be subject to another Government then may Subjects be obliged to what is impossible contradictory Commands and at the same time the Civil Magistrate requires him to defend his Country against an Invasion the Ecclesiastical Governour may command him to abandon its defence for the carrying on an Holy War in the Holy Land in order to the recovery of our Saviour's Sepulchre from the Possession of the Turks and Saracens But seeing no man can be subject to contradictory obligations 't is by consequence utterly impossible he should be subject to two Supreme Powers
above one viz. the fourth that has not divers Laws relating to Church Affairs And as for the Capitulars of Charles the Great together with the Additions of Lewis the Godly his Son and Successour they contain little else but Ecclesiastical Constitutions as may be seen in Lindembrogius his Collection of Ancient Laws together with divers other Laws of Theodorick and other Gothish Kings § 18. And next to the Divine Providence we owe the Settlement and Preservation of Christian Religion in the World to the Conduct of Christian Princes For by the time of Constantine the Primitive Spirit and Genius of Christianity was wearing out of fashion and the Meekness and Humility of its first Professours began to give place to a furious and tumultuary Zeal and no sooner did the heats of Persecution begin to abate but the Church was presently shattered into swarms of Factions by the violent Passions and Animosities of its Members about bare Speculations or useless Practices And of all the quarrels that ever disturbed the World there were never any perhaps so excuseless or so irregular as those of Christendom of which 't is hard to determine whether they were commenced with more folly and indiscretion or pursued with more passion and frowardness The rage and fierceness of Christians had kindled such a Fire in the Church that it must unavoidably have been consumed by its own Combustions had not the Christian Emperours employed all their Power to suppress the Fury of the Flames And though in spight of all their Prudence and Industry Christianity was sadly impaired by its own Tumults and Seditions yet had it not been for the care of Christian Princes it had in all humane probability been utterly destroyed and the Flames that had once caught its Superstructures must without remedy have burnt up its very Foundations And if we look into the Records and Histories of the first Christian Emperours we shall find that the most dangerous Disturbances that threatned the State had their beginnings in the Church and that the Empire was more shaken by the intestine Commotions that arose from Religion than by Foreign Wars and Invasions And upon this account is it that we find them so highly concern'd to reconcile all the Discords and allay all the Heats about Religion by silencing needless and unprofitable Controversies determining certain necessary Truths prescribing decent Rites Ceremonies of Publick Worship and all other wise and prudent Expedients to bring the minds and practices of men to Sobriety and Moderation § 19. And by this means was the outward Polity of the Church tolerably well established and the Affairs of Religion competently well grounded though better or worse according to the wisdom and vigilance of the several Emperours till the Bishops of Rome usurp'd one half of the Imperial Power and annexed the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Supremacy to their own See For taking advantage of the Distractions occasioned partly by the Incursions of the Northern Nations on the West partly by the Invasions of the Turkish Power on the East but mainly by the Division of the Empire it self they gain'd either by force or fraud the whole Dominion of Religion to themselves and by pretending to the Spirit of Infallibility usurp'd an absolute and uncontroulable Empire over the Faiths and Consciences of mankind And whilst they at first pretended no other Title to their Sovereignty but what they derived from Religion they were constrain'd to scrue up their Power to an unmeasurable Tyranny thereby to secure themselves in those Insolencies and Indignities wherewith they perpetually affronted the Princes of Christendom And knowing the Free-born Reason of men would never tamely brook to be enslaved to so ignoble a Tyranny they proclaim'd it a Traytour or what is the same a Heretick to the Catholick Faith and by their lowd noises and menaces frighted it out of Christendom In which design they at length advanced so far till Rome Christian became little less fond and superstitious than Rome Heathen and Christianity it self was almost debauched to the lowest guise of Paganism and Europe the Seat of the most refined and politest part of mankind was involved in a more than African Ignorance and Barbarity And thus did they easily usher in the grand departure and Apostasie from Religion by the falling away from Reason and founded the Roman Faith as well as Empire upon the Ruines of Humane Liberty § 20. In which sad posture continued the Affairs of Christendom till the Reformation which though it has wrought wonderful Alterations in the Christian World yet has it not been able to resettle Princes in their full natural Rights in reference to the Concerns of Religion For although the Supremacy of the Civil Power in Religious matters be expresly asserted in all the Publick Confessions of the Reformed Churches but especially in that of the Church of England which is not content barely to affirm it but denounces the Sentence of Excommunication against all that deny it Yet by reason of the exorbitant Power that some pert and pragmatical Divines have gain'd over the minds of the People this great Article has found little or no entertainment in their Practices there starting up a race of proud and imperious men about the beginning of the Reformation who not regarding the Princes Power took upon themselves to frame precise Hypotheses of Orthodoxy and to set up their own Pedantick Systems and Institutions for the Standards of Divine Truth and wanting what the other had the Authority of Prescription they pretended to the Spirit of God and this pretence not only excused but justified any wild Theorems they could not prove by sober Reason and those that would be awed with it they embraced for Orthodox and those that would not they branded for Hereticks by which little device they decoyed the silly and ignorant rabble into their own party The effect of all which has been nothing but a Brutish and Fanatick Ignorance making men to talk of little else but Raptures and Extasies and filling the World with a buzze and noise of the Divine Spirit whereby they are only impregnably possess'd with their own wild and extravagant Fansies become saucy and impudent for Religion confound Order and despise Government and will be guided by nothing but the whimsies and humours of an unaccountable Conscience § 21. And hence it comes to pass that most Protestant Princes have been frighted not to say Hector'd out of the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the Clamours of giddy and distemper'd Zealots Superstition and Enthusiasm have out-fac'd the Laws and put Government out of Countenance by the boldness of their Pretensions Confident men have talked so lowdly of the Inviolable Sacredness and Authority of their Consciences that Governours not throughly instructed in the nature and extent of their Power so lately restored to them have been almost scared from intermedling with any thing that could upon this score plead its Priviledge and Exemption from their Commands And how
peremptory soever some of them have been in asserting the Rights of their Supreme Power in Civil Affairs they have been forced to seem modest and diffident in the exercise of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy and dare scarce own their Legislative Power in Religious Affairs only to comply with the saucy pretences of ungovernable and Tumultuary Zeal One notorious Instance whereof in our own Nation is the Iejunium Cecilianum the Wednesday Fast that was injoin'd with this clause of Exception That if any person should affirm it to be imposed with an Intention to bind the Conscience he should be punished like the spreaders of false News Which is plainly to them that understand it as a late Learned Prelate of our own observes a direct Artifice to evacuate the whole Law for as he excellently argues all Humane Power being derived from God and bound upon our Consciences by his Power not by Man he that says it shall not bind the Conscience says it shall be no Law it shall have no Authority from God and then it has none at all and if it be not tied upon the Conscience then to break it is no Sin and then to keep it is no Duty So that a Law without such an intention is a Contradiction it is a Law which binds only if we please and we may obey when we have a mind to it and to so much we are tied before the Constitution But then if by such a Declaration it was meant That to keep such Fasting-days was no part of a direct Commandment from God that is God had not required them by himself immediately and so it was abstracting from that Law no Duty Evangelical it had been below the wisdom of the Contrivers of it for no man pretends it no man says it no man thinks it and they might as well have declar'd That the Law was none of the Ten Commandments The matter indeed of this Law was not of any great moment but the Declaration annexed to it proved of a fatal and mischievous consequence for when once the unruly Consciences of the Puritans were got loose from the restraints of Authority nothing could give check to their giddy and furious Zeal but they soon broke out into the most impudent Affronts and Indignities against the Laws and ran themselves into all manner of disloyal Outrages against the State As is notoriously evident in the Writings and Practices of Cartwright Goodman Whittingham Gilby Whitehead Travers and other leading Rabbies of the Holy Faction whose Treatises are stuffed with as railing spightful and malicious Speeches both against their Prince the Clergy the Lords of the Council the Judges the Magistrates and the Laws as were ever publickly vented by the worst of Traytors in any Society in the world And as for the method of their Polity it was plainly no more than this first to reproach the Church with infamous and Abusive Dialogues and then to Libel the State with bitter and Scurrilous Pamphlets to possess mens minds with dislikes and jealousies about Publick Affairs whisper about reproachful and slanderous Reports inveigle the people with a thousand little and malicious Stories enter into secret Leagues and Confederacies foment Discontents and Seditions and in every streight and exigence of State threaten and beleaguer Authority In fine the scope of all their Sermons and Discourses was to perswade their Party that if Princes refuse to reform Religion 't is lawful for the People with Direction of their Godly Ministers i. e. themselves to do it and that by violent and forcible courses And whither this Principle in process of time led them the Story is too long too sad and too well known to be here repeated 't is sufficient that it improved it self into the greatest Villanies concluded in the blackest Tragedy that was ever acted upon this Island § 22. Well then to sum up the result of this Discourse 't is evident we see both from Reason and Experience what a powerful influence Religion has upon the peace and quiet of Kingdoms that nothing so effectually secures the publick Peace or so easily works its disturbance and ruine as it s well or ill Administration and therefore that there is an absolute necessity that there be some Supreme Power in every Common-wealth to take care of its due Conduct and Settlement that this must be the Civil Magistrate whose Office it is to secure the publick Peace which because he cannot sufficiently provide for unless he have the Power and Conduct of Religion its Government must of necessity be seated in him and none else So that those persons who would exempt Conscience and all Religious Matters from the Princes Power must make him either a Tyrant or an impotent Prince for if he take upon him to tye Laws of Religion upon their Consciences then according to their Principles he usurps an unlawful Dominion violates the Fundamental Rights and Priviledges of Mankind and invades the Throne and Authority of God himself But if he confess that he cannot then does he clearly pass away the bigest Security of his Government and lay himself open to all the Plots and Villanies that can put on the Mask of Religion And therefore should any Prince through unhappy miscarriages in the State be brought into such streights and exigences of Affairs as that he cannot restrain the head-strong Inclinations of his Subjects without the hazard of raising such Commotions and Disturbances as perhaps he can never be able to allay and so should be forced in spight of himself to indulge them their Liberty in their Fansies and Perswasions about Religion yet unless he will devest himself of a more material and more necessary part of his Authority than if he should grant away his Power of the Militia or his Prerogative of ratifying all Civil Laws unless I say he will thus hazard his Crown and make himself too weak for Government by renouncing the best part of his Supremacy he must lay an Obligation upon all Persons to whom he grants this their Religious freedom to profess that 't is matter of meer favour and indulgence and that he has as much Power to govern all the publick Affairs of Religion as any other matters that are either conducive or prejudicial to the publick Peace and Quiet of the Common-wealth And if they be brought to this Declaration they will but confess themselves to say no worse Turbulent and Seditious persons by acknowledging That they refuse their Obedience to those Laws which the Supreme Authority has just Power to impose CHAP. II. A more Particular Account of the Nature and Necessity of a Sovereign Power in Affairs of Religion The Contents THE Parallel between matters relating to Religious Worship and the Duties of Morality Moral Vertues the most material Parts of Religion This proved 1. from the Nature of Morality and the Design of Religion 2. By a particular Induction of all the Duties of Mankind A Scheme of Religion reducing all its Branches either to the Vertues or
free Grace and Goodness in that in the first Ages of Christianity he was pleased out of his infinite concern for its Propagation in a miraculous manner to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue Wherefore the Apostle St. Paul when he compiles a complete Catologue of the Fruits of the Spirit reckons up only Moral Vertues Gal. 5. 22. Love Joy or Chearfulness Peaceableness Patience Gentleness Goodness Faithfulness Meekness and Temperance and elsewhere Titus 2. 11. the same Apostle plainly makes the Grace of God to consist in gratitude towards God Temperance towards our selves and Justice towards our Neighbours For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Where the whole Duty of Man is comprehended in living Godlily which is the Vertue of humble Gratitude towards God Soberly which contains the Vertues of Temperance Chastity Modesty and all others that consist in the dominion of Reason over our sensual Appetites Righteously which implies all the Vertues of Justice and Charity as Affability Courtesie Meekness Candour and Ingenuity § 3. So destructive of all true and real Goodness is the very Religion of those Men that are wont to set Grace at odds with Vertue and are so far from making them the same that they make them inconsistent and though a man be exact in all the Duties of Moral Goodness yet if he be a Graceless Person i. e. void of I know not what Imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell and his Conversion is more hopeless than the vilest and most notorious Sinners and the Morally Righteous Man is at a greater distance from Grace than the Profane and better be lewd and debauch'd than live an honest and vertuous life if you are not of the Godly Party Bona Opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem says Flaccus Illiricus Moral Goodness is the greatest Let to Conversion and the prophanest wretches make better Saints than your Moral Formalists And by this means they have brought into fashion a Godliness without Religion Zeal without Humanity and Grace without good Nature or good Manners have found out in lieu of Moral Virtue a Spiritual Divinity that is made up of nothing else but certain Trains and Schemes of Effeminate Follies and illiterate Enthusiasms and instead of a sober Devotion a more spiritual and intimate way of Communion with God that in truth consists in little else but meeting together in private to prate Phrases make Faces and rail at Carnal Reason i. e. in their sense all sober and sincere use of our Understandings in spiritual Matters whereby they have effectually turn'd all Religion into unaccountable Fansies and Enthusiasms drest it up with pompous and empty Schemes of Speech and so embrace a few gawdy Metaphors and Allegories instead of the substance of true and real Righteousness And herein lies the most material difference between the sober Christians of the Church of England and our modern Sectaries That we express the Precepts and Duties of the Gospel in plain and intelligible Terms whilst they trifle them away by childish Metaphors and Allegories and will not talk of Religion but in barbarous and uncouth Similitudes and what is more the different Subdivisions among the Sects themselves are not so much distinguish'd by any real diversity of Opinions as by variety of Phrases and Forms of Speech that are the peculiar Shibboleths of each Tribe One party affect to lard their Discourses with clownish and slovenly Similitudes another delights to roul in wanton and lascivious Allegories and a third is best pleased with odd unusual unitelligible and sometimes blasphemous Expressions And whoever among them can invent any new Language presently sets up for a man of new Discoveries and he that lights upon the prettiest Nonsense is thought by the ignorant Rabble to unfold new Gospel-Mysteries And thus is the Nation shattered into infinite Factions with sensless and phantastick Phrases and the most fatal miscarriage of them all lies in abusing Scripture-Expressions not only without but in contradiction to their sense So that had we but an Act of Parliament to abridge Preachers the use of fulsom and luscious Metaphors it might perhaps be an effectual Cure of all our present Distempers Let not the Reader smile at the odness of the Proposal For were men obliged to speak Sense as well as Truth all the swelling Mysteries of Fanaticism would immediately sink into flat and empty Nonsense and they would be ashamed of such jejune and ridiculous Stuff as their admired and most profound Notions would appear to be when they want the Varnish of fine Metaphors and glittering Allusions In brief were this a proper place to unravel all their affected Phrases and Forms of Speech which they have learn'd like Parrots to prate by Rote without having any Notion of the Things they signifie it would be no unpleasant Task to demonstrate That by them they either mean nothing at all or some Part or Instrument of Moral Vertue So that all Religion must of necessity be resolv'd into Enthusiasm or Morality The former is meer Imposture and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter and what-ever besides appertains to it must be subservient to the Ends of Vertue such are Prayer Hearing Sermons and all manner of Religious Ordinances that have directly no other place in Religion than as they are instrumental to a vertuous life § 4. 'T is certain then That the Duties of Morality are the most weighty and material concerns of Religion and 't is as certain That the Civil Magistrate has Power to bind Laws concerning them upon the Consciences of Subjects So that every mans Conscience is and must be subject to the Commands of lawful Superiours in the most important matters of Religion And therefore is it not strange that when the main Ends and designs of all Religion are avowedly subject to the Supreme Power that yet men should be so impatient to exempt its means and subordinate Instruments from the same Authority What reason can the Wit of man assign to restrain it from one that will not much more restrain it from both Is not the right practice of Moral Duties as necessary a part of Religion as any outward Form of Worship in the World Are not wrong Notions of the Divine Worship as destructive of the Peace and settlement of Common-wealths as the most vicious and licentious Debaucheries Are not the rude multitude more inclined to disturb Government by Superstition than by Licentiousness And is there not vastly greater danger of the Magistrates erring in matters of Morality than in Forms and Ceremonies of Worship in that those are the main essential and ultimate Duties of Religion whereas these are at highest but their Instruments and can challenge no other place in Religion than as they are subservient to the purposes of Morality Nay is it not still more
unaccountable that the Supreme Magistrate may not be permitted to determine the Circumstances and Appendages of the subordinate Ministeries to Moral Virtue and yet should be allowed in all Common-wealths to determine the particular Acts and Instances of these Virtues themselves For Example Justice is a prime and natural Virtue and yet its particular Cases depend upon humane Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum The Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius's Right and Propriety but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of the Society they live in can determine And there are some Cases that are Acts of Injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all Places must be govern'd by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World Whereas 't is undeniably evident That neither the Law of God nor of Nature determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws They in general forbid Theft Incest Murther and Adultery but what these Crimes are they determine not in all Cases but is in most particulars to be explained by the Civil Constitutions and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons among these Crimes that the Law of God and of Nature forbids And now is it not strangely humoursome to say That Magistrates are instrusted with so great a Power over mens Conscience in these great and weighty Designs of Religion and yet should not be trusted to govern the indifferent or at least less material Circumstances of those things that can pretend to no other Goodness than as they are Means serviceable to Moral Purposes That they should have Power to make that a Particular of the Divine Law that God has not made so and yet not be able to determine the use of an indifferent Circumstance because forsooth God has not determin'd it In a word That they should be fully impowered to declare new Instances of Vertue and Vice and to introduce new Duties in the most important parts of Religion and yet should not have Authority enough to declare the Use and decency of a few Circumstances in its subservient and less material Concerns § 5. The whole State of Affairs is briefly this Man is sent into the World to live happily here and prepare himself for happiness hereafter this is attain'd by the practice of Moral Vertues and Pious Devotions and wherein these mainly consist Almighty Goodness has declared by the Laws of Nature and Revelation but because in both there are changeable Cases and Circumstances of things therefore has God appointed his Trustees and Officials here on Earth to Act and Determine in both according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new Particulars of the Divine Law to declare new Bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither does nor can limit because of necessity they must in a great measure depend upon the Customs and Constitutions of every Common-wealth And in the same manner are the Circumstances and outward Expressions of Divine Worship because they are variable according to the Accidents of Time and Place entrusted with less danger of Errour with the same Authority And what Ceremonies this appoints unless they are apparently repugnant to their Prime end become Religious Rites as what particular Actions it constitutes in any Species of Virtue become new Instances of that Virtue unless they apparently contradict its Nature and Tendency Now the two Primary Designs of all Religion are either to express our honourable Opinion of the Deity or to advance the Interests of Vertue and Moral Goodness so that no Rites or Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the Worship of God unless they tend to debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity And 't is upon one or both of these Accounts that any Rites and Forms of Worship become criminally superstitious and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora and Venus because they were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery and such were the Salvage and Bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal-Peor and all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Antient Paganism because they supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the Miseries and Tortures of its Creatures And such is all Idolatry in that it either gives right Worship to a wrong Object or wrong Worship to a right one or at least represents an infinite Majesty by Images and Resemblances of finite things and so reflects disparagement upon some of the Divine Attributes by fastning dishonourable Weaknesses and Imperfections upon the Divine Nature As for these and the like Rites and Ceremonies of Worship no Humane Power can command them because they are directly contradictory to the Ends of Religion but as for all others that are not so any lawful Authority may as well enjoyn them as it may adopt any Actions whatsoever into the Duties of Morality that are not contrary to the Ends of Morality § 6. But a little farther to illustrate this we may observe That in matters both of Moral Vertue and Divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an Eternal and Unchangeable Obligation and these can never be prejudiced or altered by any Humane Power because the Reason of their Obligation arises from a necessity and constitution of Nature and therefore must be as Perpetual as that But then there are other Rules of Duty that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of Humane Life and depend chiefly upon Contracts and Positive Laws of Kingdoms these suffer Variety because their Matter and their Reason does so Thus in the matter of Murther there are some Instances of an unalterable Nature and others that are changeable according to the various Provisions of Positive Laws and Constitutions To take away the life of an innocent Person is forbidden by such an indispensable Law of Nature that no Humane Power can any way directly or indirectly make it become lawful in that no Positive Laws can so alter the Constitution of Nature as to make this Instance of Villany cease to be mischievous to Mankind and therefore 't is Capital in all Nations of the World But then there are other particular Cases of this Crime that depend upon Positive Laws and so by consequence are liable to change according to the different Constitutions of the Common-wealths men live in Thus though in England 't is Murther for an injured Husband to kill an Adulteress taken in the Act of Uncleanness because 't is forbidden by the Laws of this Kingdom yet in Spain and among the old Romans it was not because their Laws permitted it and if the Magistrate himself may punish the Crime with Death he may appoint whom he pleases to be his Executioner And the Case is the same in reference to Divine Worship in which there are some things of
an absolute and indispensable Necessity and others of a Transient and changeable Obligation Thus 't is absolutely necessary every Rational Creature should make returns of Gratitude to its Creator from which no Humane Power can restrain it but then for the outward Expressions and Significations of this Duty they are for the most part Good or Evil according to the Customs and Constitutions of different Nations unless in the two forementioned Cases that they either countenance Vice or disgrace the Deity But as for all other Rituals Ceremonies Postures manners of performing the outward Expressions of Devotion that are not chargeable with one or both of these nothing can hinder their being capable of being adopted into the Ministeries of Divine Service or exempt them from being subject to the Determinations of Humane Power And thus the Parallel holds in all Cases between the Secondary and Emergent Laws of Morality and the Subordinate and Instrumental Rules of Worship they both equally pass an Obligation upon all men to whom they are prescribed unless they directly contradict the ends of their Institution And now from this more general Consideration of the Agreement between matters of meer Worship and other Duties of Morality in reference to the Power of the Civil Magistrate we may proceed by some more particular accounts to discover how his Dominion over both is of equal extent and restrain'd within the same bounds and measures and that in what cases soever he may exercise Jurisdiction over Conscience in matters of Morality in all the same he may exercise the same Power in Concerns of Religious Worship and on the contrary in what cases his Power over matters of Religion is restrain'd in all the same is it limited as to things of a Moral Nature Whence it must appear with a clear and irresistible Evidence That mens right to Liberty of Conscience is the same in both to all Cases Niceties and Circumstances of things and that they may as rationally challenge a freedom from the Laws of Justice as from those of Religion and that to grant it in either is equally destructive of all Order and Government and equally tends to reduce all Societies to Anarchy and Confusion CHAP. III. A more Particular State of the Controversie concerning the Inward Actions of the Mind or Matters of meer Conscience The Contents MAnkind have a Liberty of Conscience over all their Actions whether Moral or strictly Religious as far as it concerns their Iudgments but not their Practices Of the Nature of Christian Liberty It relates to our Thoughts and not to our Actions It may be preserved inviolable under outward Restraints Christian Liberty consists properly in the Restauration of the Mind of Man to its Natural priviledge from the Yoke of the Ceremonial Law The substantial part of Religious Worship is internal and out of the reach of the Civil Magistrate External Worship is no part of Religion It is and must be left undetermined by the Law of God Sacrifices the most antient Expressions of Outward Worship were purely of Humane Institution Though their being expiatory depended upon a positive Law of God yet their most proper and original Vse viz. To express the Significations of a Grateful Mind depended on the Wills of Men. Of their first Original among the Heathens The Reason why God prescribed the particular Rites and Ceremonies of outward Worship to the Iews Vnder the Christian Dispensation he has left the disposal of outward Worship to the power and discretion of the Church The Impertinency of mens Clamours against Significant Ceremonies when 't is the only use of Ceremonies to be significant The Signification of all Ceremonies equally Arbitrary The Signification of Ceremonies is of the same Nature with that of Words And men may as well be offended at the one as the other § 1. FIrst then Let all matters of meer Conscience whether purely Moral or Religious be subject to Conscience meerly i. e. Let men think of things according to their own perswasions and assert the Freedom of their Judgments against all the Powers of the Earth This is the Prerogative of the Mind of Man within its own Dominion its Kingdom is intellectual and seated in the thoughts not Actions of Men and therefore no Humane Power does or can prescribe to any mans Opinions and secret Thoughts but men will think as they please in spight of all their Decrees and the Understanding will remain free when every thing else is bound And this Sovereignty of Conscience is no entrenchment upon that of Princes because 't is concern'd only in such matters as are of a quite different Nature from their Affairs and gives no restraint to their commanding Power over the Actions of men for meer Opinion whilst such has no Influence upon the Good or Evil of Humane Society that is the proper object of Government and therefore as long as our Thoughts are secret and lock'd up within our own Breasts they are out of the reach of all Humane Power But as for matters that are not confined within the Territories of meer Conscience but come forth into outward Action and appear in the Societies of men there is no remedy but they must be subject to the Cognizance of Humane Laws and come within the Verge of Humane Power because by these Societies subsist and humane Affairs are transacted And therefore it concerns those whose Office it is to secure the peace and tranquillity of mankind to govern and manage them in order to the Publick Good So that 't is but a vain and frivolous pretence when men plead with so much noise and clamour for the Sacred and Inviolable Rights of Conscience and apparently invade or infringe the Magistrates Power by submitting its Commands to the Authority of every Subjects Conscience because the Commands of Lawful Authority are so far from invading its proper Liberty that they cannot reach it in that 't is seated in that part of Man of whose Transactions the Civil Power can take no Cognizance All Humane Authority and Jurisdiction extends no farther than mens outward Actions these are the proper Object of all their Laws Whereas Liberty of Conscience is Internal and Invisible and confined to the minds and Judgments 〈◊〉 men and whilst Conscience acts within its proper Sphere that Civil Power is so far from doing it violence that it never can But when this great and imperious Faculty passes beyond its own peculiar Bounds and would invade the Magistrates Authority by exercising an unaccountable Dominion within his Territories or by venting such Wild Opinions among his Subjects as he apprehends to tend to the disturbance of the Publick Peace then does it concern him to give check to its proceedings as much as to all other Invasions for the care of the Publick Good being his Duty as well as Interest it cannot but be in his Power to restrain or permit Actions as they are conducible to that End Mankind therefore have the same Natural Right to Liberty of
to be Rogues as soon as they can § 6. So that according to this Hypothesis Mankind is left in as ill a condition after they have by Pacts and Covenants united into Societies and a State of Peace as they were in their natural State of War For all Covenants of mutual Trust are according to its own Rules in the State of Nature invalid because under that men are under no obligations of Justice and Honesty to one another and have no other measure of their actions but their interest and therefore as that might invite them in some circumstances to enter into Bonds and Contracts so it may in others to break them So that in the State of Government all their Promises Oaths and Contracts will prove as ineffectual as in the State of Nature Partly because the force of all Contracts made in the State of Government ariseth from the validity of the first Compact that was made in the State of Nature that is in that state in which it could have no validity partly Because they have no other tye but that of self-interest and so can lay no other obligation upon us to observe them than they might have done before And therefore if Mankind be once supposed in this natural state of War they can never be delivered from it and after they have enter'd into Covenants of Peace they would remain as much as before in a posture of War and be subject to all the same dangers and miseries that would have annoyed them if they had continued in their natural state For if Justice and fidelity be not supposed to be the Law and Duty of our Natures no Covenants are of power enough to bring us under any obligation to them Now having thus clearly blown up the foundations of this Hypothesis 't were but labour in vain to make particular enquiries into all the flaws and follies of its Superstructures seeing they must of necessity stand and fall together for if its subsequent Propositions be coherently deduced from these Fundamental Principles all the evidence and certainty they can pretend to depends on them and therefore the Premisses being once convicted of falshood all pretences to truth in the conclusions must necessarily vanish And if any of them happen to be true and rational 't is not by vertue of these but other Principles Thus though the Laws of Nature he assigns may be useful to the ends of Government and Happiness of Mankind yet because upon those grounds on which he assigns them they would be no Laws that alone is sufficient evidence of the errour and vanity of his whole Hypothesis seeing how good soever they may be in themselves yet upon the Principles and in the Method in which he proposes them they are of no force In that self-interest being the only reason of their obligation the Interests of Civil Society come thereby to be no better secured with than without them because if they were not in force by vertue of any Compact all men would chuse to act according to them when they thought it advantageous and when they have the utmost force his Principles can give them no man would think they obliged him when ever he apprehended them disadvantageous So that this malignant Principle of meer self-interest running through the whole Systeme and twisting it self with every branch of his Morality it does not only eat out and enervate its native life and vigour but withal envenoms their natural truth and soundness with its own malignity Which Principle being removed and that influence it hath on other parts of this Hypothesis being prevented and withal the Foundation on which it stands ruin'd viz. his absurd and imaginary State of Nature we have perhaps cashier'd all that is either base or peculiar in it and restored the true accounts of natural Justice and right Reason viz. That all men have a natural Right to Happiness from the very design of their creation that this cannot be acquired without mutual aids and friendships and therefore right reason dictates that every man should have some concern for his Neighbour as well as himself because this is made necessary to the welfare of the World by the natural state of things and by this mutual exchange of love and kindness men support one another in the comforts of humane life CHAP. V. A Confutation of the Consequences that some men draw from Mr. Hobs's Principles in behalf of Liberty of Conscience The Contents HOw a belief of the Imposture of all Religions is become the most powerful and fashionable Argument for the Toleration of all Though Religion were a Cheat yet because the World cannot be Govern'd without it they are the most mischievous Enemies to Government that tell the World it is so Religion is useful or dangerous in a State as the temper of mind it breeds is peaceable or turbulent The dread of Invisible Powers is not of it self sufficient to awe people into subjection but tends more probably to Tumults and Seditions This largely proved by the ungovernableness of the Principles and Tempers of some Sects Fanaticism is as natural to the Common people as folly and ignorance and yet is more mischievous to Government than Vice and Debauchery How the Fanaticks of all Nations and Religions agree in the same Principles of Sedition To permit different Sects of Religion in a Common-wealth is only to keep up so many incurable pretences and occasions of publick disturbance The corrupt passions and humours of men make Toleration infinitely unsafe Toleration only cried up by opprest Parties because it gives them opportunity to overturn the settled frame of things Every man that desires indulgence is engaged by his Principles to endeavour Changes and Alterations A bare indulgence of men in any Religion different from the establish'd way of Worship does but exasperate them against the State § 1. AND now the Reason why I have thus far pursued this Principle is because 't is become the most powerful Patron of the Fanatick Interest and a Belief of the indifferency or rather Imposture of all Religion is now made the most effectual not to say most fashionable Argument for Liberty of Conscience For when men have once swallowed this Principle That Mankind is free from all obligations antecedent to the Laws of the Common-wealth and that the Will of the Sovereign Power is the only measure of Good and Evil they proceed suitably to its Consequences to believe That no Religion can obtain the force of a Law till 't is establish'd for such by Supreme Authority that the Holy Scriptures were not Laws to any man till they were enjoyned by the Christian Magistrate that no man is under any obligation to assent to their Truth unless the Governours of the Common-wealth require it and that setting aside their Commands 't is no sin to believe our Blessed Saviour a villanous and lewd Impostor and that if the Sovereign Power would declare the Alcoran to be Canonical Scripture it would be as much the
take care what particular Doctrines of Religion are taught within his Dominions because some are peculiarly advantageous to the ends of Government and others as naturally tending to its disturbance Some incline the minds of men to candour moderation and ingenuity and work them to a gentle and peaceable temper by teaching humility charity meekness and obedience Now 't is the Interest of Princes to cherish and propagate such Doctrines among their Subjects that will make them not only quiet but useful in the Common-wealth But others there are that infect the minds of men with pride peevishness malice spight and envy that incline them to delight in detracting from Princes and speaking reproachfully of Government and breed in them such restless and seditious tempers that 't is next to an impossibility for any Prince to please or oblige them Now as for such perverse and arrogant Sects of men it certainly concers Governours to suppress them as so many Routs of Traytors and Rebels Religion then is either useful or dangerous in a Common-wealth as the temper of mind it breeds is peaceable or turbulent and as there is nothing more serviceable to the Interests of Government so there is nothing more mischievous and therefore nothing more concerns Princes than to take care what Doctrines are taught within their Dominions For seeing Religion has and will have the strongest influence upon the minds of men when that renders them averse and troublesom to Government 't is that all the Power nor Policy in the World can keep them peaceable till such perswasions are rooted out of their minds by severity of Laws and Penalties And as long as men think themselves obliged upon pain of damnation to Disobedience and Sedition not any Secular threatnings and inflictions are of force enough to bridle the Exorbitances of Conscience There is not any vice so incident to the Common People as Superstition nor any so mischievous 'T is infinitely evident from the Histories and Records of all Ages and Nations that there is nothing so vicious or absurd but may pass for Religion and what is worse the more wild and giddy Conceits of Religion are ever suckt in by the multitude with the greatest passion and eagerness and there is no one thing in the World so difficult as to bring the Common People to true Notions of God and his Worship insomuch that 't is no Paradox to affirm That Religion i. e. what is mistaken for it has been one of the greatest Principles of mischief and wickedness in the World And if so then certainly nothing requires so much care and prudence in the Civil Magistrate as its due conduct and management So that the dread of Invisible Powers is of it self no more serviceable to awe the people into subjection then to drive them into Tumults and Confusions and if it chance to be accompanied as it easily may with tumultuous and seditious perswasions 't is an invincible obligation to Villany and Rebellion And therefore it must needs above all things concern Princes to look to the Doctrines and Articles of mens Belief seeing 't is so great odds that they prove of dangerous consequence to the publick Peace and in that case the apprehensions of a Deity and a World to come makes their danger almost irresistible Sect. 4. There are some Sects whose Principles and some persons whose tempers will not suffer them to live peaceable in any Common-wealth For what if some men believe That if Princes refuse to reform Religion themselves 't is lawful for their Godly Subjects to do it and that by violence and force of Arms What if they believe That Princes are but Executioners of the Decrees of the Presbytery and that in case of disobedience to their Spiritual Governours they may be Excommunicated and by consequence Deposed What if they believe That Dominion is founded in Grace and therefore that all wicked Kings forfeit their Crowns and that it is in the power of the People of God to bestow them where they please And what if others believe That to puruse their success in villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence and that when the Event of War has deliver'd up Kings into their Power then not to depose or murther them were to slight the Guidance of Gods Providential Dispensations Are not these and the like innocent Propositions think you mightily conducive to the peace and settlement of Common-wealths Such Articles of Faith as these cannot but make brave and obedient Subjects and he must needs be a glorious and powerful Prince where such conceits are the main ingredients of his Subjects Religion Let any man shew me what Doctrines could have been more unluckily contrived to disturb Government than these And if men would study on purpose to frame and model a Rebellious Faith these must have been their Fundamental Articles and yet 't is sufficiently known where they have been both believed and practised But further Is there not a sort of Melancholy Religionists in the World whose very Genious inclines them to Quarrels and Exceptions against the State and management of Publick Affairs There is nothing so malepart as a Splenetick Religion the inward discontent and uneasiness of mens own minds maintains it self upon the faults and miscarriages of others and we may observe how this humour is ever venting it self in sighs and complaints for the badness of the times i. e. in effect of the Government and in telling and aggravating little stories that may reflect upon the wisdom and ability of their Superiours 'T is impossible to please their fretful and anxious minds the very delights and recreations of the Court shall stir their envy and the vanities of the great Ones grieve and wound their tender Souls However Princes behave themselves they can never win upon the affections of these people their very prosperity shall disoblige them and they are ready upon all occasions to bring them to Account for their misdemeanours And if any of the Grandees happen to be discontented they have here a Party ready formed for the purpose to revenge their injury and bring evil Counsellors that seduce the King to Iustice. And 't is not impossible but there may be a sort of proud and haughty men among us not over-well affected to Monarchick Government who though they scorn yet patronize this humour as a check to the insolence and presumption of Princes Again Are there not some whole Sects of men all whose Religion is made up of nothing but passion rancour and bitterness All whose Devotion is little better than a male-contentedness their Piety than a sanctified fury and their zeal than a proud and spightful malice and who by the Genius of their Principles are brought infinitely and irrecoverably under the power of their passions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now nothing imports Governours so much as to manage mens passions in that 't is these rather than our appetites that disturb the World A person that is debaucht and intemperate is indeed useless
that distinguish their Parties And this cannot but be a mighty endearment of their Prince to them when he neglects and discountenances his best Subjects only because they are the godly Party for so every Party is to it self to join himself to their profest and irreconcileable Enemies And they will be wonderfully forward to assist a Patron of Idolatry and Superstition or an Enemy to the power of godliness for these are the softest words that different Sects can afford one another And withal I might adde That they must needs be much in love with him when they have reason to believe that they lie perpetually under his displeasure and that he looks upon them as little better than Enemies So that if a Prince permit different Parties and interests of Religion in his Dominions however he carries himself towards them he shall have at least all Parties discontented but one for if himself be of any he displeases all but that if of none he displeases all And Zealous and Religious People of all sorts must needs be wonderfully in love with an Atheist and there is no remedy but he must at least be thought so if he be not of any distinct and visible profession CHAP. VI. Of things Indifferent and of the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Things undetermined by the Word of God The Contents THe Mystery of Puritanism lies in this Assertion That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is expresly commanded in the Word of God The Wildness Novelty and unreasonableness of this Principle It makes meer Obedience to lawful Authority sinful It takes away all possibility of Settlement in any Church or Nation It is the main pretense of all pious Villanies It cancels all Humane Laws and makes most of the Divine Laws useless and impracticable It obliges men to be seditious in all Churches in the World in that there is no Church that has not some Customs and Vsages peculiar to it self All that pretend this Principle do and must act contrary to it The exorbitancy of this Principle makes all yielding and condescension to the men that plead it unsafe and impolitick Wherein the perfection and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures consists Of the Vanity of their Distinction who tell us That the Civil Magistrate is to see the Laws of Christ executed but to make none of his own The dangerous consequents of their way of arguing who would prove That God ought to have determined all Circumstances of his own Worship 'T is scarce possible to determine all Circumstances of any outward action they are so many and so various The Magistrate has no way to make men of this perswasion comply with his will but by forbidding what he would have done The Puritans upbraided with Mr. Hooker's Book of Ecclesiastical Politie and challeng'd to answer it Their Out-cries against Popery Will-worship Superstition adding to the Law of God c. retorted upon themselves The main Objection against the Magistrates power in Religion proposed viz. That 't is possible that he may impose things sinful and superstitious This Objection lies as strongly against all manner of Government Our inquiry is after the best way of settling things not that possibly might be but that really is Though Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction may be abused yet 't is then less mischievous than Liberty of Conscience The Reason of the necessity of subjection to the worst of Governours because Tyranny is less mischievous than Rebellion or Anarchy The Author of the Book entituled Vindiciae contra Tyrannos confuted That it may and often does so happen that 't is necessary to punish men for such perswasions into which they have innocently abused themselves Actions are punishable by Humane Laws not for their sinfulness but for their ill Consequence to the Publick This applied to the Case of a well-meaning Conscience Sect. 1. ALL things as well Sacred as Civil that are not already determined as to their Morality i. e. that are not made necessary Duties by being commanded or sinful Actions by being forbidden either by the Law of Nature or positive Law of God may be lawfully determined either way by the Supreme Authority and the Conscience of every subject is tied to yield Obedience to all such Determinations This Assertion I lay down to oppose the first and the last and the great Pretence of Non-conformity and wherein as one observeth the very Mystery of Puritanism consisteth viz. That nothing ought to be established in the Worship of God but what is authorized by some Precept or Example in the Word of God that is the complete and adequate Rule of Worship and therefore Christian Magistrates are only to see that executed that Christ has appointed in Religion but to bring in nothing of their own they are tied up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor manner So that whatever they injoin in Divine Worship if it be not expresly warranted by a Divine Command how innocent soever it may be in it self it presently upon that account loses not only its Liberty but its Lawfulness it being as requisite to Christian practice that things indifferent should still be kept indifferent as things necessary be held necessary This very Principle is the only Fountain and Foundation of all Puritanism from which it was at first derived and into which it is at last resolved A pretence so strangely wild and humorsom that it is to me an equal wonder either that they should be so absurd as seriously to believe it or if they do not that they should be so impudent as thus long and thus confidently to pretend it when it has not the least shadow of Foundation either from Reason or from Scripture and was scarce ever so much as thought of till some men having made an unreasonable Separation from the Church of England were forced to justifie themselves by as unreasonable Pretences For what can be more incredible than that things that were before lawful and innocent should become sinful upon no other score than their being commanded i. e. that meer obedience to lawful Authority should make innocent actions criminal For the matter of the Law is supposed of it self indifferent and therefore if obedience to the Law be unlawful it can be so for no other reason than because 't is Obedience So that if Christian Liberty be so awkard a thing as these men make it 't is nothing else but Christian Rebellion 't is a Duty that binds men to disobedience and forbids things under that formality because Authority commands them Now what a reproach to the Gospel is this that it should be made the only Plea for Sedition What a scandal to Religion that tenderness of Conscience should be made the only Principle of Disobedience and that nothing should so much incline men to be refractory to Authority as their being conscientious What a perverse folly is it to imagine That nothing but opposition to Government can secure our liberty And
what a cross-grain'd thing is it to restrain things only because they are matters of liberty and first to forbid Princes to command them because they are lawful and then Subjects to do them only because they are commanded But to expose the absurdity of this Principle by some more particular considerations §2 First The follies and mischiefs that issue from it are so infinite that there can be no setled Frame of things in the World that it will not overturn and if it be admitted to all intents and purposes there can never be an end of disturbances and alterations in the Church in that there never was nor ever can be any Form of Worship in the World that is to all circumstances prescribed in the World of God and therefore if this Exception be thought sufficient to destroy one there is no remedy but it may as occasion requires serve as well to cashier all and by consequence take away all possibility of settlement Thus when upon this Principle the Disciplinarians separated from the Church of England the Independents upon the same ground separated from them the Anabaptists from the Independents the Familists from the Anabaptists and the Quakers from the Familists and every Faction divided and subdivided among themselves into innumerable Sects and Undersects and as long as men act up to it there is no remedy but Innovations must be endless If it be urged against Lord-Bishops 't is as severe against Lay-Presbyters if against Musick in Churches then farewel singing of Psalms in Rhime if against the Cross why not against sprinkling in Baptism and if against Cathedral Churches then down go all Steeple-Houses If against one thing then against every thing and there is nothing in the exteriour parts of Religion but the two Sacraments that can possibly escape its impeachment All the pious Villanies that have ever disturbed the Christian World have shelter'd themselves in this grand Maxime that Iesus Christ is the only Law-maker to his Church and whoever takes upon himself to prescribe any thing in Religion invades his Kingly Office The Gnosticks of old so abused this pretence to justifie any seditious and licentious practices that they made Heathen Princes look upon Christianity as an Enemy to Government and the Fanaticks of late have so vex'd and embroil'd Christendom with the same Principle that Christian Princes themselves begin to be of the same perswasion 'T is become the only Patron and Pretext of Sedition and when any Subjects have a mind to set themselves free from the Laws of their Prince they can never want this pretence to warrant their disobedience Seeing there is no Nation in the World that has not divers Laws that are not recorded by the four Evangelists and therefore if all humane Institutions intrench upon our Saviours Kingly Prerogative they are and ever must be provided with matters of quarrel to disturb Government and justifie Rebellion § 3. Secondly Nay further this fond pretence if made use of to all the ends for which it might as wisely serve would cancel all humane Laws and make most of the divine Laws useless which have only described the general Lines of Duty but left their particular determinations to the Wisdom of humane Laws Now the Laws of God cannot be put in practice but in particular Cases and Circumstances these cannot be determin'd but by the Laws of man therefore if he can command nothing but what is already prescribed to us in the Word of God he can have no power to see the Divine Laws put in Execution For where are described all the Rules of Justice and Honesty Where are determined all doubts and questions of Conscience Where are decided all Controversies of Right and Wrong Where are recorded all the Laws of Government and Policy Why therefore should humane Authority be allowed to interpose in these great affairs and yet be denied it in the Customs of Churches and Rules of Decency There is no possible reason to be assign'd but their own humour and fond opinion they are resolved to believe it and that is Argument enough for 't is unanswerable How comes this Proposition to be now limited to matters of meer Religion but only because this serves their turn for otherwise Why are not the Holy Scriptures as perfect a Rule of Civil as of Ecclesiastical Policy Why should they not be as complete a System of Ethicks as they are a Canon of Worship Why do not these men require from the Scriptures express Commands for every Action they do in common life How dare they take any Physick but what is prescribed in the Word of God How dare they commence a Suit at Law without Warranty from Scripture How dare they do any natural action without particular advice and direction of Holy Writ § 4. Thirdly But as foolish as this Opinion is its mischief equals its folly for 't is impossible but that these Sons of strife and singularity must have been troublesom and seditious in all Churches and Common-wealths Had they lived under the Jewish Church why then Where has Moses commanded the Feast of Purim the Feast of the Dedication the Fasts of the fourth the fifth the seventh and the tenth months What Warrant for the building of Synagogues and what Command for that significant Ceremony of wearing sack-cloth and ashes in token of Humiliation If in the primitive Ages of Christianity why then where did our Saviour appoint the Love-Feasts Where has he instituted the Kiss of Charity Where has he commanded the observations of Lent and Easter Where the Lords-Day Sabbath and where all their other Commemorative Festivals Vide Tertull de Coronâ c. 3. Will they retreat to the Lutheran Churches they will there meet with not only all the same but many more Antichristian and superstitious Ceremonies to offend their tender Consciences and will find themselves subject to the same Discipline and Government saving that their Superintendents want the Antichristian Honours and Revenues of the English Bishops partly through the poverty of the Country partly through the injury of Sacriledge but mainly because the Church Revenues are in the possession of Romish Bishops Will they to France there notwithstanding the unsetled state of the Protestants of that Nation through want of the assistance of the Civil Power they shall meet with their Liturgies and establisht Forms of Prayer and Change of Apparel for Divine Service as well as at home If they will to Geneva there Mr. Calvin's Common-Prayer-Book is as much imposed as the Liturgy of the Church of England there they are enjoyn'd the use of Wafer-Cakes the Custom of Godfathers and Godmothers bidding of Prayer proper Psalms not only for days but for hours of the day with divers other Rites and Ceremonies that are no where recorded in the Word of God In a word What Church in the World can affirm these were the only Customs of the Apostolical Age and that the Primitive Church never used more or less than these So that these men
of scruple that renounce Communion with the Church of England must do the same with all Churches in the World in that there is not any one Church in Christendom whose Laws and Customs are not apparently liable either to the same or as great exceptions Now Magistrates must needs be obligd to deal wonderful gently with such tender Consciences as these that are acted by such nice and unhappy Principles as must force them to be troublesom and unpeaceable in any Common-wealth in the World Nay what is more notorious than all this these men have all along in pursuit of this Principle run directly counter to their own practices and perswasions For not to puzzle them to discover in which of the Gospels is injoyn'd the form of Publick Penance in the Kirk of Scotland or to find out the Stool of Repentance either among the works of Bezaleel or the Furniture of the Temple We read indeed of Beesoms and Flesh-forks and Pots and Shovels and Candlesticks but not one syllable of Joynt-stools Let them tell me What Precept or Example they have in the Holy Scriptures for singing Psalms in Meeter Where has our Saviour or his Apostles enjoyn'd a Directory for publick Worship And that which themselves imposed What Divine Authority can it challenge beside that of an Ordinance of Lords and Commons What Precept in the Word of God can they produce for the significant Form of swearing by laying their hand upon the Bible which yet they never scrupled What Scripture Command have they for the three significant Ceremonies of the solemn League and Covenant viz. That the whole Congregation should take it 1. Uncovered 2. Standing 3. with their right hand lift up bare Now What a prodigious piece of impudence was this that when they had not only written so many Books with so much vehemence against three innocent Ceremonies of the Church only because they were significant but had also involved the Nation in a civil War in a great measure for their removal and had arm'd themselves and their Party against their Sovereign with this Holy League of Rebellion that even then they should impose three others so grosly and so apparently liable to all their own Objections What clearer evidence can we possibly have That it is not Conscience but humour and peevishness that dictates their scruples And What instance have we in any Nation of the World of any Schism and Faction so unreasonably begun and continued The Rebellion of Corah indeed may resemble but nothing can equal it And from hence we may discover how vain a thing it is to make Proposals and Condescensions to such unreasonable men when 't is so impossible to satisfie all their demands and suppose we should yield and deliver up to their zeal those harmless Ceremonies they have so long worried with so much fury and impatience it would only cherish them in their restless and ungovernable perswasions For whilst their peevish tempers are acted by this exorbitant Principle the Affairs of Religion can never be so setled as to take away all occasions and pretences of Quarrel in that there never can be any Circumstances of Religious Worship against which this Principle may not as rationally be urged and 't is impossible to perform Religious Worship without some Circumstance or other and if all men make not use of it against all particulars 't is because they are humoursom as well as seditious and so allow one thing upon the same Principle they disavow another For certainly otherwise it were impossible that any men should when they pray refuse to wear a Surplice and yet when they swear which is but another sort of Divine Worship never scruple to kiss the Gospel So that whoever seriously imbibes this perswasion and upon that account withdraws himself from the Communion of the Church he understands not the consequences of his Opinion if it does not lead him down to the lowest folly of Quakerism which after divers gradual exorbitances of other less extravagant Sects was but the last and utmost improvement of this Principle And therefore whilst men are possess'd with such a restless and untoward perswasion What can be more apparently vain than to talk of Accommodations or to hope for any possibility of quiet and setlement till Authority shall see it necessary as it will first or last to scourge them into better manners and wiser opinions So that we see the weight of the Controversie lies not so much in the particular matters in debate as in the Principles upon which 't is managed and for this very reason though we are not so fond as to believe the Constitutions of the Church unalterable yet we deem it apparently absurd to forego any of her establish'd Ceremonies out of compliance with these mens unreasonable demands which as it would be coarsly impolitick upon divers other accounts so mainly by yielding up her Laws and by consequence submitting her Authority to such Principles as must be eternal and invincible hindrances of Peace and Setlement This let them consider whom it most concerns § 5. Fourthly As for their Principle of the perfection and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures 't is undeniably certain as to the fundamental Truths and substantial Duties of Christian Religion but when this Rule that is suited only to things necessary is as confidently applied to things accessory it lays in the minds of men impregnable Principles of Folly and Superstition For confounding them in their different apprehensions between the substantial Duties and external Circumstances of Religion and making them of equal value and necessity it makes the doing or not doing of a thing necessary to procure the Divine acceptance which God himself has not made so and places a Religion in things that are not religious and possesseth the minds of men with false and groundless fears of God wherein consisteth the very Essence and Formality of Superstition Whereas were they duly instructed in the great difference between things absolutely necessary and things meerly decent and circumstantial this would not only preserve them in the right Notions of good and evil but also keep up the Purity of Religion Decency of Worship and due Reverence of Authority And therefore when these men would punctually tye up the Magistrate to add nothing to the Worship of God but what is enjoyn'd in the Word of God if their meaning be of new Articles of Belief 't is notoriously impertinent because to this no Civil Magistrate pretends But if their meaning be that the Magistrate has no Authority to determine the particular circumstances of Religion that are left undetermined by the Divine Law 't is then indeed to the purpose but as notoriously false in that we are certainly bound to obey him in all things lawful and every thing is so that is not made unlawful by some prohibition for things become evil not upon the score of their being not commanded but upon that of their being forbidden and what the Scripture forbids not it
And then as for their Declamations against adding to the Law of God to be short I appeal to the Reason of all mankind whether any men in the World are more notoriously guilty of unwarrantable Additions than these who forbid those things as sinful and consequently under pain of Damnation which the Law of God has no where forbidden What is it to teach the Commandments of men for Doctrines but to teach those things to be the Law of God that are not so And What can more charge the Divine Law of Imperfection than to teach that a man may perform all that it has commanded and yet perish for not doing something that it has not commanded And so do they who make it necessary not to do something that God has left indifferent Whereas nothing can be more Unreasonable than to tax the Church of making Additions to the Law of God because all her Laws are imposed not as Laws of God but as Laws of men and so are not more liable to this Charge than Iustinian's Institutes and Littleton's Tenures And then in the last place as for their noise against Popery a term that as well as some other angry words signifies any thing that some men dislike I shall say no more than that we have most reason to raise this out-cry when they take upon themselves as well as the old Gentleman at Rome to controul the Laws of the Secular Powers And what do they but set up a Pope in every mans Conscience whilst they vest it with a Power of countermanding the Decrees of Princes These things cannot but appear with an undeniable evidence to any man that is not invincibly either ignorant or wilful or both and therefore 't is time they should at least for shame if they will not for Conscience cease to disturb the Church with Clamour and Exceptions so miserably impertinent that I blush for having thus far pursued them with a serious Confutation And therefore leaving them and their impertinencies together for I despair of ever seeing these old and dear Acquaintances parted I shall now address my self to clear off one more material and more plausible Objection and so conclude this particular And 't is this Sect. 14. 'T is possible the Magistrate may be deceived in his Determinations and establish a Worship that is in its own nature sinful and superstitious in which case if what I contend for be true all his Subjects must either be Rebels or Idolaters if they obey they sin against God if they disobey they sin against their Sovereign This is the last Issue of all that is objected in this Controversie and the only Argument that gives gloss and colour to all their other trifling pretences And yet 't is no more than what may be as fairly objected against all Government of Moral and Political Affairs for there 't is as possible that the Supreme Power may be mistaken in its Judgment of good and evil and yet no man will deny the Civil Power of Princes because they are fallible and may perhaps abuse it And yet in this alone lies all the strength of this Objection against their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction because forsooth 't is possible they may erre and manage it to evil purposes But whatever force it carries in it it rather strikes at the Divine Providence than my Assertion and charges that of being defective in making sufficient Provisions for the due Government of mankind in that it has not set over us infallible Judges and Governours For unless all Magistrates be guided by an unerring Spirit 't is possible they may act against the ends of their Institution and if this be a sufficient Objection against their Authority it must of necessity overthrow the Power of all fallible Judicatures and make Governours as incompetent Judges in matters of Morality and Controversies of right and wrong as in Articles of Faith and Religion And therefore our Enquiry is to find out the best way of setling the world that the state of things is capable of If indeed mankind were infallible this Controversie were at an end but seeing that all men are liable to Errors and Mistakes and seeing there is an absolute necessity of a Supreme Power in all Publick Affairs our Question I say is What is the most prudent and expedient way of setling them not that possibly might be but that really is And this as I have already sufficiently proved is to devolve their management on the Supreme Civil Power which though it may be imperfect and liable to Errors and Mistakes yet 't is the least so and is a much better way to attain Publick Peace and Tranquillity than if they were entirely left to the ignorance and folly of every private man which must of necessity be pregnant with all manner of Mischiefs and Confusions So that this method I have assign'd being comparatively the best way of Government of all Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Affairs is not to be rejected because 't is liable to some inconveniences but rather to be embraced above all others because 't is liable to incomparably the fewest And if it so happen that some private persons suffer wrong from this method of proceeding yet this private injury has an ample Compensation from the Publick benefit that arises from it and when it so falls out that either the whole Society or one individual must suffer 't is easie to determine that better one honest man perish than a million The inconveniences of a bad Government are inconsiderable in comparison to Anarchy and Confusion and the evils that fall upon particular men from its unskilful or irregular Administration are vastly too little to weigh against the necessity of its institution Sect. 15. And upon this Principle stands the necessity of subjection and obedience to all Authority in that though its ill management may happen to bring many and great inconveniences upon the Publick yet they cannot equal the mischiefs of that Confusion which must necessarily arise if Subjects are warranted to disobey or resist Government whenever they shall apprehend 't is ill administred Perhaps never any Government was so good as to be administred with exact Justice and Equity nor any Governour so wise as not to be chargeable with faults and miscarriages and therefore if upon every quarrel every wise or honest man can pick against the Laws of the Common-wealth he may lawfully withdraw his obedience What can follow but a certain and unavoidable dissolution of Government when every man will be commanded by nothing but his own Perswasions that is himself And upon this account 't is that the Law of God has tied upon us such an absolute and indispensable subjection to Authority which though it may be mischievous yet 't is less so than disobedience and the world must be govern'd as it can be by Men and not as it might be by Angels The management indeed of Humane Affairs is generally bad enough but 't is as well as can probably
be expected if we consider the weaknesses and imperfections of humane Nature and therefore we must bear it as well as we can because if we go about to alter any present Setlement we must almost of necessity make it worse And all the effects of such attempts have seldom ended in any thing else but perpetual Confusions till things have at length resetled in the same or as bad if not a worse condition than they were in before The miseries of Tyranny are less than those of Anarchy and therefore 't is better to submit to the unreasonable Impositions of Nero or Caligula than to hazard the dissolution of the State and consequently all the Calamities of War and Confusion by denying our subjection to Tyrants And there never was any lawful Magistrate so bad whose Laws and Government were not more conducive to the preservation of the Common Good than his Oppression was to subvert it and 't is wisely eligible to suffer a less Evil rather than lose a greater good 'T is a known and a wise saying of Tacitus Bonos Principes voto expetere debemus qualescunque pati quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera Naturae mala sic luxum avaritiam dominantium tolerare And this in one word is not only a satisfactory Answer but an ample Confutation of that Pestilent Book Vindiciae contra Tyrannos the scope whereof is only to invite Subjects to rebel against Tyrannical Government by representing the evils of Tyranny which though they were as great as he supposes them to be yet they are abundantly less than those that follow upon Rebellion as himself and his Party were sufficiently taught by the Event And for one Common-wealth he can instance in that has gain'd by Rebellion 't is easie to produce an hundred that it has hazarded if not utterly ruined And therefore this Author not to mention Mariana and Buchanan and others has perform'd nothing in behalf of his Cause by displaying the miseries of a Tyrannical Power unless he had withal evinced them to be more calamitous than those of War and Confusion There is nothing in this World that depends upon the freedom of man's will can be so securely establish'd as not to be liable to sad inconveniences and therefore that Constitution of Affairs is most eligible that is liable to the fewest And upon this score I say it is that the Divine Law has so severely injoin'd us to submit to the worst of Governours because notwithstanding that Tyranny is an oppressing burden of Humane life yet 't is less intolerable than a state of War and Confusion Sect. 16. But to speak more expresly to the particular matter in debate 'T is necessary the world must be govern'd govern'd it cannot be without Religion Religion as harmless and peaceable as it is in it self yet when mixt with the Follies and Passions of men it does not usually inspire them with overmuch gentleness and goodness of Nature and therefore 't is necessary that it submit to the same Authority that commands over all the other affections of the mind of man And we may as well suppose all men just and honest and upon that account cancel all the Laws of Equity as suppose them wise and sober in their Religious Conceits and upon that score take off all restraints from the excesses and enormities of Zeal 'T is therefore as necessary to the preservation of Publick Peace that men should be govern'd in matters of Religion as in all other common Affairs of Humane life And as for all the inconveniences that may follow from it they are no other than what belong to all manner of Government and such as are and must be unavoidable as long as mankind is endued with liberty of Will for so long he cannot be intrusted with any Power how good soever that he may not abuse And therefore for men to go about to abrogate the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate because he may abuse it to evil and irreligious ends by establishing Idolatry instead of the true Worship of God in which case 't is pity that good men should be exposed to ruine only for preserving a good Conscience 'T is just as reasonable as if they should cashier all manner of Government and set men free from all Oaths and Obligations of Allegiance because 't is possible some Usurper may gain the Supreme Power and then force his Subjects to abjure all their former Oaths to their lawful Sovereign and 't is pity that men of the gallantest and most honest Principles should be fined decimated hanged banish'd and Murdered only for their loyalty to their Prince And thus will the Parallel run equal in all Cases between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Supreme Powers both may be and often are lamentably abused and therefore if that be reason enough to abolish one 't is so to abolish both so that the whole result of all amounts only to this Enquiry Whether it would not be a politick course to take away all Government because all Government may be abused Sect. 17. Though this be a sufficient reply to the Objection yet it will not be altogether impertinent or unnecessary to abet it with this one consideration more That it may and often does so happen that 't is necessary to punish men for such Perswasions into which they have perhaps innocently abused themselves for 't is easily possible for well-meaning People through ignorance and inadvertency to be betrayed into such unhappy Errors as may tend to the Publick Disturbance which though it be not so much their Crime as Infelicity yet is there no remedy but it must expose them to the Correction of the Publick Rods and Axes Magistrates are to take care of the Common-wealth and not of every particular mans concerns And the end of all their Laws is to provide for the welfare of the Publick that is their Charge and that they must secure and if any harmless and well-meaning man make himself obnoxious to the Penalties of the Law that is a misfortune they cannot prevent and therefore must deal with him as they do with all other Offenders that is pity and punish him Private interest must yield to Publick Good and therefore when they cannot stand together and there is no remedy but one must suffer 't is better certainly that one or a few should perish than the whole Community Neither is it possible that any Laws should be so warily contrived but that some innocent Persons may sometimes fall under their Penalties yet because 't is more beneficial to the Publick Welfare that now and then a guiltless person should suffer than that all the guilty should escape in that the former injures but one the latter all Therefore is it necessary to govern all Societies by Laws and Penalties without regard to the ill fortune that may befal a few single persons which can hardly be avoided whilst the Laws are in force and yet 't is
necessary that either the same or some other in their stead be establish'd that will be liable to the same inconvenience Besides 't is not unworthy Observation that it is not so properly the end of Government to punish Enormities as to prevent Disturbances and when they bring Malefactors to Justice as we term it they do not so much inflict a Punishment upon the Crime for that belongs peculiarly to the cognizance of another Tribunal as provide for the welfare of the Common-wealth by cutting off such Persons as are Pests and Enemies to it and by the example of their Punishment deter others from the like Practices And therefore there are some sins of which Governours take not so much notice that are more hainous in themselves and in the sight of God than others that they punish with Capital Inflictions because they are not in their own nature so destructive of the ends of Government and the good of Publick Societies So that actions being punishable by Humane Laws not according to the nature of the Crime but of their ill consequence to the Publick when any thing that is otherwise even innocent is in this regard injurious it as much concerns Authority to give it check by severity of Laws and Punishments as any the foulest Immoralities Temporal Punishments then are inflicted upon such persons that are turbulent against prescribed Rules of Publick Worship upon the same account as they are against those that offend against all other Publick Edicts of Government they are both equally intended to secure the Publick Peace and Interest of the Society and when either of them are violated they equally tend to its disturbance and therefore as mens actings against the Civil Laws of a Common-wealth are obnoxious to the Judgment of its Governours for the same reason are all their Offences against its Ecclesiastical Laws liable to the censure of the same Authority So that the matter debated in its last result is not so much a question of Religion as of Policy not so much of what is necessary to faith as to the quiet and preservation of a Common-wealth and 't is possible a man may be a good Christian and yet his Opinion be intolerable upon the score of its being inconsistent with the Preservation of the Publick Peace and the necessary ends of Government For 't is easily imaginable how an honest and well-meaning man may through meer ignorance fall into such Errours which though God will pardon yet Governours must punish His integrity may expiate the Crime but cannot prevent the Mischief of his Errour Nay so easie is it for men to deserve to be punished for their Consciences that there is no Nation in the world in which were Government rightly understood and duly managed mistakes and abuses of Religion would not supply the Gallies with vastly greater numbers than Villany CHAP. VII Of the Nature and Obligations of Scandal and of the Absurdity of Pretending it against the Commands of Lawful Authority The Contents THE Leaders of the Separation being asham'd of the silliness of the Principle with which they abuse the People think to shelter themselves by flying to the pretence of Scandal Scandal is any thing that occasions the sin of another and is not in it self determinately Good or Evil. All Scandal is equally taken but not equally Criminal Men are to govern themselves in this Affair by their own prudence and discretion Of St. Paul's contrary behaviour towards the Iews and Gentiles to avoid their contrary Scandal The reason of the seeming Contradiction in this point between his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians The proper obligations of Scandal are extended only to indifferent things The Cases in which it is concern'd are not capable of being determined by setled Laws and Constitutions How scandalously these men prevaricate with the World in their pretence of Scandal that may excuse their refusal of Conformity but gives no account of their Separation Of their scrupling to renounce the Covenant this is no reason to drive them from Divine Service into Conventicles How shamefully these men juggle with the World and impose upon their Followers If they would but perswade their Proselytes to be of their own minds it would end all our differences They first lead the people into the Scandal and then make this the formal reason why they must follow them If the peoples scruples are groundless then to comply with them is to keep them in a sinful disobedience A further account of their shameful prevarication The ridiculousness of the peoples pretending it concerning themselves that they are scandalized By their avoiding private Offences they run into publick Scandals They scandalize their own weak Brethren most of all by complying with them Old and inveterate Scandals are not to be complyed with but opposed and such are those of the Non-Conformists The Commands of Authority and the Obligations of Obedience infinitely outweigh and utterly evacuate all the pretences of Scandal Sect. 1. THough the former Principle viz. that no man may with a safe conscience do any thing in the Worship of God that is not warranted by some Precept or Precedent in the Word of God be riveted into the peoples minds as the first and fundamental Principle of the Puritan Separation yet their Leaders seem to be ashamed of their own folly and being driven from this and all their other little holds and shelters they have at length thought it the safest and the wisest course to flie to the pretence of Scandal This is their Fort Royal in which they have at last secured and entrench'd themselves As for their own parts they tell us they are not so fond as to believe That the Ceremonies of the Church of England are so superstitious and Antichristian and that themselves might lawfully use them were it not that there are great numbers of sincere but weak Christians that apprehend them to be sinful and for this reason they dare not conform to our Ceremonial Constitutions for fear of ensnaring and scandalizing weak Consciences which is in the Apostles account of it no less than spiritual murther And whatever is due to Authority the Souls of men are too high a Tribute None can be more ready than themselves to submit to all lawful Commands but here they desire to be excused when they cannot obey but at the price of Souls 'T is a dreadful Doom that our Saviour has denounced against those who offend any of his little ones i. e. Babes and Weaklings in Christianity And therefore though they would not stick to hazard their own lives in obedience to Authority yet nothing can oblige them to be so cruel and so uncharitable as to destroy any for whom Christ died which is certainly done by casting snares and scandals before their weak Brethren This is the last refuge of the Leaders of the Separation and therefore I cannot but think my self obliged to examine its strength and reasonableness and I doubt not but to make it appear as
proud ignorant and seditious Preachers against whom if the severity of the Laws were particularly levelled How easie would it be in some competent time to reduce the people to a quiet and peaceable temper and to make all our present Schisms that may otherwise prove eternal expire with or before the present Age The want or neglect of which method is the only thing that has given them so much strength so long a continuance § 8. Fourthly No man is bound to take notice of or give place to old and inveterate scandals but rather ought in defence of his Christian liberty to oppose them with a publick defiance and to shame those that pretend them out of their confidence For the only ground of compliance and condescension in these Cases is tenderness and compassion to some mens infirmities and as long as I have reason to think this the only cause of their being scandalized so long am I bound by charity and good nature to condescend to their weaknesses and no longer For after they have had a competent time and means of better information I have reason enough to presume that 't is not ignorance that is the gound of their taking offence but pride or peevishness or something worse So that all that is to be done in this case is to disabuse the weak by rectifying his judgment removing his scruples declaring the innocence of my action clearing it of all sinister suspicions and protesting against all those abuses he would put upon the lawful use of my Christian liberty And when I have so done I have cleared my self from all his ill-natured jealousies and surmises and discharged all the offices and obligations of Charity And if after all this my offended Neighbor shall still persevere in his perverse mis-interpretation of my actions and pretend that they still gaul and ensnare his tender Conscience the man is peevish and refractory and only makes use of this precarious pretence to justifie his uncharitable censures of my innocent liberty and then am I so far from being under any obligation to comply with the peevishness and insolence of his humour that I am strongly bound to thwart and oppose it For otherwise I should but betray my Christian liberty to the Tyranny of his wilful and imperious ignorance and give superstitious folly the advantage and Authority of Prescription For if that prevail in the practice of the World and I must yield and condescend to it because 't is stubborn and obstinate it must in process of time gain the reputation of being the custom and received opinion of the Church and when it can plead that then it becomes necessary Inveterate Errours are ever sacred and venerable and what prescription warrants it always imposes Custom ever did and ever will rule and preside in the practices of men because 't is popular and being ever attended with a numerous train of Followers it grows proud and confident and is not ashamed to upbraid free reason with singularity and Innovation So that all I could gain by an absolute resignation of my own liberty to another mans folly would be only to give him a plausible pretence to claim a right of command and dominion over me and to make my self subject to his humour by my own civility And thus though the Jews were in the beginning of Christianity for a time permitted the Rites and Customs of their Nation yet afterward when the Nature of the Christian Religion was or might be better understood the Church did not think it owed them so much civility And if the Primitive Christians had not given check to their stubborn perswasions they had given them Authority and by too long a compliance would have vouched and abetted their Errours and adopted Judaism into Christianity and Circumcision not only might but of necessity must have been conveyed down to us from age to age by as firm and uninterrupted a Tradition as Baptism And this shews us how way-ward and unreasonable those men are who still persevere to object Scandal against the Churches Constitutions after she has so often protested against this Exception by so many solemn Declarations When at first it was pretended it might perhaps for a while excuse or alleviate their disobedience but after Authority has so sufficiently satisfied their scruples and removed their suspicions and so amply cleared the innocence of its own intentions if men will still continue jealous and quarrelsom they may thank themselves if they smart for their own presumption and folly And Princes have no reason to abridge themselves in the exercise of their lawful Power only because some of their Subjects will not learn to be modest and ingenuous And if his Majesty should think good to condescend so far to these mens peevishness as to reverse his Laws against them out of compliance with them this would but feed and cherish their insolence and only encourage them to proceed if that be possible to more unreasonable demands for upon the same reason they insist upon these they may when they are granted them go on to make new remonstrances i. e. upon no reason at all And beside this would but give the countenance of Authority to their scruples and superstitious pretences and leave the Church of England under all those Calumnies to Posterity with which themselves or their followers labour to charge it and oblige future Ages to admire and celebrate these peevish and seditious persons as the Founders of a more godly and thorow Reformation Not to mention how much Princes have ever gain'd by their concessions to the demands of Fanatick Zealots they may easily embolden but hardly satisfie them and if they yield up but one Jewel of their Imperial Diadem to their importunity 't is not usual for them to rest till they have gain'd Crown and all and perhaps the head that wears it too for there is no end of the madness of unreasonable men How happy would the world be if wise men were but wise enough to be instructed by the Mistress of Fools But every Age lives as much at all adventure as if it were the first without any regard to the warnings and experiences of all former Ages Sect. 9. Fifthly The Commands of Authority and the Obligations of Obedience infinitely outweigh and utterly evacuate all the pretences of scandal For the matters wherein scandal is concern'd are only things indifferent but nothing that is not antecedently sinful remains so after the commands of lawful Authority are superinduced upon it these change things indifferent as to their Nature into necessary Duties as to their Vse and therefore place them beyond the reach of the obligations of scandal that may in many cases extend to the restraint of our Liberty but never to the prejudice and hinderance of our Duty so that no Obedience how offensive soever unless it be upon some other account faulty is capable of being made Criminal upon the score of scandal the obligations whereof are but accidental
changeable and so alters its colours of good and evil by its several aspects and postures to various and different ends And therefore they never carry any Obligation in them when they interfere with higher more useful Duties And hence it comes to pass that it is absolutely impossible for any man to be reduced into a necessity of sinning because though two inferiour and subordinate Duties may sometimes happen to be inconsistent with each other or with some duty of an absolute and unalterable goodness yet the nature of things is so handsomly contrived that it is utterly impossible that things should ever happen so crosly as to make two essential and indispensable Duties stand at mutual opposit on And therefore no man can ever be forc'd to act against one out of compliance with the other And if there be any contrariety between a natural and instrumental Duty there the case is plain that the greater evacuates the less if between two instrumental Duties it can scarce so fall out but that some emergent circumstances shall make one of them the more necessary but if they are both equally eligible there is no difficulty and a man may do as he pleases It is indeed possible for any man by his own voluntary choice to entangle himself in this sad perplexity but there is no culpable Error that is unavoidable and every sinfully erroneous Conscience is voluntary and vincible And if men will not part with their sinful Errors it is not because they cannot but because they will not avoid them And if they resolve to abuse themselves no wonder if their sin be unavoidable but then the necessity is the effect of their own choice And so all sin is inevitable when the peremptory determination of the will has made it necessary But as for the nature of all the Laws of Goodness in themselves they are so wisely contrived that it is absolutely impossible any circumstances should ever fall out so awkardly as to make one sin the only way to escape another or a necessary passage to a necessary Duty Now to apply this general Rule of Conscience to our particular case there is not any Precept in the Gospel set down in more positive and unlimited expressions or urged with more vehement motives and perswasions than obedience to Government because there are but few if any Duties of a weightier and more important necessity than this And for this reason is it that God has injoined it with such an absolute and unrestrained severity thereby to intimate that nothing can restrain the universality of its obligatory power but evident unquestionable disobedience to himself The duty of Obedience is the original and Fundamental Law of Humane Societies and the only advantage that distinguishes Government from Anarchy This takes away all dissentions by reducing every mans private will and judgment to the determination of Publick Authority Whereas without it every single person is his own Governour and no man else has any power or command over his actions i. e. He is out of the state of Government and Society And for this reason is obedience and condescension to the wisdom of Publick Authority one of the most absolute and indispensable duties of mankind as being so indispensably necessary to the peace and preservation of Humane Societies Now a Conscience that will not stand to the Decrees and Determinations of its Governors subverts the very Foundations of all Civil Society that subsists upon no other principle but mens submitting their own judgments to the decisions of Authority in order to the publick peace and setlement without which there must of necessity be eternal disorders and confusions And therefore where the Dictates of a private Conscience happen to thwart the determinations of the publick Laws they in that case lose their binding power because if in that case they should oblige it would unavoidably involve all Societies in perpetual tumults and disorders Whereas the main end of all Divine as well as Humane Laws is the prosperity and preservation of Humane Society So that where any thing tends to the dissolution of Government and undermining of Humane happiness though in other circumstances it were virtuous yet in this it becomes criminal as destroying a thing of greater goodness than it self And hence though a doubtful and scrupulous Conscience should oblige in all other cases yet when its commands run counter to the commands of Authority there its obligatory power immediately ceases because to act against it is useful to vastly more noble and excellent purposes than to comply with it In that every man that thwarts and disobeys the Laws of the Common-wealth does his part to disturb its Publick Peace that is maintained by nothing else but obedience and submission to its Laws Now this is manifestly a bigger mischief and inconvenience than the foregoing of any doubts and scruples can amount to And therefore unless Authority impose upon me something that carries with it more evil and mischief than there is convenience in the peace and happiness of the whole Society I am indispensably bound to yield obedience to his commands And though I scrupulously fear lest the Magistrates injunctions should be superstitious yet because I am not sure they are so and because a little irregularity in the external expressions of Divine Worship carries with it less mischief and enormity than the disturbance of the Peace of Kingdoms I am absolutely obliged to lay aside my doubt rather than disobey the Law because to preserve it naturally tends to vast mischiefs and confusion whereas the inconvenience of my acting against it is but doubtful and though it were certain yet it is small and comparatively inconsiderable And therefore to act against the inclinations of our own doubts and scruples is so far from being criminal that it is an eminent instance of Virtue and implies in it besides its subserviency to the welfare of mankind the great duties of Modesty Peaceableness and Humility And as for what some are forward enough to object that this is To do evil that good may come of it it is a vain and frivolous exception and prevented in what I have already discoursed in that that Rule is concerned only in things absolutely and essentially evil whose nature no case can alter no circumstance can extenuate and no end can sanctifie But things that are only subserviently good or evil derive all their Virtue from the greater Virtue they wait upon and therefore where a meaner or an instrumental duty stands in competition with an essential Virtue its contrariety destroys its goodness and instead of being less virtuous becomes altogether sinful for though it have abstractedly some degrees of goodness yet when it chances to oppose any duty that has more and more excellent degrees it becomes evil and unreasonable by as many degrees as that excels it And one would think this case should be past dispute as to the matters of our present Controversie that are of so vast a
distance and disproportion forasmuch as obedience is a virtue of so absolute necessity and so diffusive usefulness whereas the goodness of those little things they oppose to it is so small that it is confessedly scarce discernable and their Consciences as nice and curious as they are not able to determine positively whether they are good or evil And therefore what a prodigious madness is it to weigh such trifling and contemptible things against the vast mischiefs and inconveniences of disobedience The voice of the publick Laws cannot but drown the uncertain whispers of a tender Conscience all its scruples are hushed and silenced by the commands of Authority It dares not whimper when that forbids and the nod of a Prince aws it into silence and submission But if they dare to murmur and their proud stomachs will swell against the rebukes of their Superiors then there is no remedy but the rod and correction They must be chastised out of their peevishness and lashed into obedience In a word though Religion so highly consults the interests of Common-wealths and is the greatest instrument of the peace happiness of Kingdoms yet so monstrously has it been abused by the folly of some and wickedness of others that nothing in the world has been the mother of more mischief to Government The main cause of which has been mens not observing the due scale and subordination of duties and that in case of competition the greater always destroys the less For hence have they opposed the Laws and by consequence the peace of the Society for an Opinion or a Ceremony or a subordinate instrumental duty whereas had they soberly considered the important necessity of their obedience they would scarce have found any duty of moment enough to weigh against it For seeing almost all virtues are injoined us in order to the felicity of man and seeing there is nothing more conducive to it than that which tends to the Publick weal and good of all and seeing this is the design and natural tendency of the Publick Laws and our obedience to them that had need be hugely certainly and absolutely evil that cancels their obligation and dispences with our obedience and not a Form or a Ceremony or an outward expression or any other instrumental part of Religion But some menthink it better to be disputative than peaceable and that there is more godliness in being captious and talkative than in being humble and obedient It is a pleasure to them to be troublesome to Authority they beat about and search into every little corner for doubts exceptions against their commands And how do they triumph when they can but start a scruple They labour to stumble at Atoms to boggle at straws and shadows and cherish their scruples till they become as big as they are unreasonable and lay so much stress upon them as to make them out-weigh the greatest and most weighty things of the Law And it is prodigiously strange and yet as common too to consider how most men who pretend and that perhaps sincerely to great tenderness of Conscience and scruple postures and innocent ceremonies are so hardy as to digest the most wicked and most mischievous villanies They can dispence with spightfulness malice disobedience schism and disturbance of the Publick Peace and all to nourish a weak and an impotent scruple and in pursuit of any little conceit they will run themselves into the greatest and most palpable enormities and will cherish it till it weighs down the peace of Kingdoms and Fundamental Principles of common honesty Find me a man that is obstinately scrupulous and I will shew you one that is incurably seditious and whoever will prefer his scruples before the great duties of obedience peace quietness and humility cannot avoid being often betrayed into tumults and seditions But if we will resolve to be tender of our obedience to the great undoubted and unalterable commands of the Gospel that will defend our Consciences against the vexation of scruples and little inadvertencies protect the publick from all the disturbances of a peevish and wayward godliness and secure our acceptance with God without being so punctual and exact in the Offerings of Mint and Cummin Sect. 6. In cases and disputes of a publick concern private men are not properly sui Iuris they have no power over their own actions they are not to be directed by their own judgments or determined by their own wills but by the commands and determinations of the Publick Conscience And if there be any sin in the command he that imposed it shall answer for it and not I whose whole Duty it is to obey The commands of Authority will warrant my obedience my obedience will hallow or at least excuse my action and so secure me from sin if not from error because I follow the best guide and most probable direction I am capable of And though I may mistake my integrity shall preserve my innocence And in all doubtful and disputable cases it is better to erre with Authority than be in the right against it not only because the danger of a little error and so it is if it be disputable is out-weighed by the importance of the great duty of obedience that is more serviceable to the main ends of Religion than a more nice and exact way of acting in opposition to Government but also because they are to be supposed the fittest Judges of what tends to the Publick Good whose business it is to understand Publick Affairs And therefore in all such matters their commands are the supream Rule of Conscience as being more competent Judges of Publick Concerns than mens own private perswasions and so must have a Superior Authority over them and bind them to yield and submit to their determinations And if we take away this Condescension of our Private Consciences to Publick Authority we immediately dissolve all Government for in case of dissention unless we submit our perswasions to their commands their commands must submit to our perswasions And then let any man tell me Wherein consists the power of Princes when it may be controlled by every Subjects opinion and what can follow but perfect disorder and confusion when every man will be governed by nothing but his own conceits And if Subjects may be allowed to dispute the prudence and convenience of all Laws Government would be but a weak and helpless thing and Princes would command at the will and pleasure of their Subjects And therefore people are never curious in their exceptions against any Publick Laws unless in matters of Religion and in that case they study for Reasons to disobey because it gratifies their pride vanity to seem more knowing than their Governours in that part of wisdom that they think most valuable Self-conceit and Spiritual Pride are strange Temptations to Disobedience and were there not something of this in it men would find out other commands more liable to their exceptions For how seldom is it that
and by consequence the good of mankind And all I would perswade men to is only that they would do as much out of duty as St. Paul did out of civility that as he complied with the apprehensions of the Jews retaining his own private judgment to himself for the greater advantage of Religion so they would whatever their own perswasions are of some things not clearly and absolutely sinful comply with the determinations of their Governours when it is conducive to the nobler ends of Publick Peace and Tranquillity A thing in it self so good and so necessary that there are very few actions that it will not render virtuous whatever they are in themselves whenever they happen to be useful and instrumental to its attainment And therefore in all matters that are no indispensable duties of Religion he that acts cross to the commands of Authority has no sense either of the great ends of Order and Government or great duties of Humanity Modest Peaceableness Meekness and Civility i. e. He is a proud and factious person and has no other motive so to do but the pleasure of being peevish and disobedient In fine there is a vast difference between Liberty and Authority of Conscience the former consists in the Freedom of a mans own judgment and of this no Magistrate can deprive us in that he cannot tie up any mans understanding from judging of things as himself pleaseth But as for the latter that consists in the power over mens outward actions and this as far as it concerns all publick affairs every man does and of necessity must pass away to the Rulers of that Society he lives in Because though I have said it often enough already yet too often I cannot say it in that it is the main Key of the Controversie and yet but little if at all regarded by our Adversaries the very nature of Government consists in nothing else but a power of command over mens actions and therefore unless all men grant it away to their Governours they live not under Government but in a state of Anarchy Every man will be Prince and Monarch to himself and as free from all commands as if he lived out of all Society seeing only himself shall have any real Dominion over his own actions and his Governours shall not have power to command him any thing but what himself first thinks fit to do And I hope I need not to prove that this is a plain dissolution of all Government So that when men will be the absolute Masters of their own actions it is not the freedom of Conscience but its power and sovereignty for which they contend they will endure none to rule over them but themselves and force Princes to submit their Laws to their saucy and imperious humour And it is this they mean by their pretence to a tender Conscience i. e. A Conscience that scruples to be subject to Government that will in spight of all Publick Laws be entirely at its own Liberty that will not submit it self to any Rule but its own private perswasions that affects to be nice and squeamish against all the commands of its Superiours and loves to censure them upon the lightest and most slender presumptions and that will not yield up any thing of its own phantastick humour to its Princes will or the Churches Peace i. e. in effect the tenderness of their Consciences for which forsooth they must be born with consists in nothing else but their being the greatest and most Notorious Hereticks For the rankest sort of Heresie is nothing but the product of a peevish and contentious Spirit and an Heretick is one that delights in Quarrels and Factions whence Erasmus renders S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sectarum Author a man that loves to be the Leader of a Party It is peevishness and obstinacy of will that turns small Errors into great Heresies Pride and Passion and whatsoever can make an opinion vicious are its Fundamental Ingredients and give it its essential Formality This vice lies not so much in the Opinions as in the tempers of men it is a stubborn and refractory disposition of mind or a peremptoriness in a mans own conceptions and therefore it is by Saint Paul reckon'd among the Fruits of the Flesh as being a kind of brutish peevishness that is directly opposed to that lenity and yieldingness of mind that is one of the choicest Fruits of the Spirit whence he advises not to confute but to admonish such an one i. e. That is quarrelsome and boisterous for every trifle and every fancy because through Pride and Perversness he is uncapable of instruction and therefore can only be advised and not disputed into Sobriety Or to use the phrase of Saint Paul he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fellow that is troublesome and contentious especially about the external Rites and Usages of the Church And such a malapert Non-Conformist he supposes disputing in the Church of Corinth that their Women ought contrary to their received Custom to be uncovered at Divine Service But he takes him up with this short and peremptory answer If any man seem to be contentious we have no such custom neither the Churches of God i. e. In things neither morally good nor evil as few external Rites are the practice of the Church is the warrant of their lawfulness and reason of their decency and that is satisfaction enough to any sober and peaceable mind And he that shall refractorily persist to controul it must be treated as a disturber of the Peace i. e. pitied and punished as are all other turbulent and seditious Persons When mens Consciences are so squeamish or so humorsome as that they will rise against the Customs and Injunctions of the Church they live in she must scourge them into order and chastise them not so much for their fond perswasion as for their troublesome peevishness And this use of the Churches Rods and Censures is so absolutely necessary that it is the only effectual way to preserve her from Factions and Contentions not only because upon this sort of men softer methods can make no impressions but also because if we remove the limits and boundaries of Discipline there will be no end of the follies and frenzies of brain-sick People And when they are once let loose who then can set bounds to the wildnesses of Godly Madness For this we have too clear a proof in the frantick practices of our Modern Sectaries who when they had inflamed their little Zeal against the Ceremonial Constitutions of our Church ran themselves into all manner of wild and extravagant gestures They measured the simplicity of Christs Worship by its opposition to all the Rules of Decency all Institutions of Order were unwarrantable Inventions and Traditions of Men all Custom was Superstition and all Discipline was Popish and Antichristian Novelty how uncouth and fantastick soever was their only Rule of Decency and every Sect distinguished it self from all others by some