them altogether and what serves our turns at some times to oppose others may at last prevail upon our selves And so it is in our Practices reserving any of their Ceremonies may at last bring us to some of their Doctrines He that keeps a Holy-day is within a step of praying to that Saint for whose sake he keeps it especially if he have the wit to consider why he keeps it He that kneels and puts weight upon it is in a fair way to adoration and he that is for joyning the Cross with Baptism may come to do it after Grace and cross himself in time 'T was Bishop Bonner's observation when he saw the Reformation and how many of the Popish Ceremonies were retained being asked what he thought of it If they like saith he the taste of our Broth so well they will eat of our Beef shortly Secondly Liberty of Conscience is the great means to diffuse Gospel-knowledge in divine things and that 's the best and surest way to bar out Popery and lock the Door upon it forever Ignorance is the great and only preparative for implicit subjection Christendom cannot I dare say afford an instance that ever any State or People where Divine-Knowledge by Liberty of Conscience and a Liberty for the Gospel was once spread were in the least danger of turning Apostates to Popery but have grown daily more and more into a detestation of it and generally almost every man amongst them carrying a Weapon in his understanding to defend the Protestant Cause Were Liberty of Conscience granted in Italy and other Popish States we should soon see the Mitre totter upon the Popes Head and probably see as fair Churches there as in any other part of Europe 'T was observed in the Wars of the Low-Countries that when ever any Catholick began to look into the Bible he was not long-liv'd in the Roman Profession Thirdly Liberty of Conscience will breed men up with an irreconcilable dislike to all Imposition in Religion and Conscience and so unite them in a general abhorrence of POPERY as the grand Mother and Author of it all Chistendom over All Principles and Parties born from a Liberty given in Religion have an Antipathy in them to that Romish Yoke and do naturally unite against the Popish Religion as the grand and common Enemy of them all Let Liberty of Conscience once be given in a Protestant-State and though there be never so many differences amongst themselves yet men of all perswasions will concenter in that He that has the freedom of his Religion will be concerned to defend it and look upon Popery as the great Grant he is in danger of Experience and Fact the best of all demonstrations do evidence this Take a view of those places where Liberty of Conscience hath been most given and you will find there the greatest aversion to Popery that is in any parts of Christendom 'T is in other places where other Methods of Imposition and Persecution are used that compliance with Popery hath been attempted and projects set on foot to compound the Protestant and the Papists into an Agreement 'T is Imposition in Religion sweeps the House and keeps the Nest warm for Popery Liberty of Conscience mortally stabs it where that is once given it may be said to the Pope as it was to Belshazzar God hath numbred thy Kingdom and finished it And the place where he once Tyrannized shall know him there no more Lastly If the Church of Rome understand their own Interest as we have good reason to believe they do this Case is determined to our hands for upon every occasion since the Reformation both in Germany France Swisserland and all places where Liberty of Conscience hath been endeavoured the Popes have toto animo every way opposed it and declared it a thing perfectly destructive to the Church and such as where-ever it was suffered would destroy the Roman Faith and in that Maxim I believe their Infallibility is not much to be denied Some are so much otherwise-minded that they believe Liberty of Conscience will be the ready means to induce Popery again amongst us The Reasons of it seem invisible unless it be done by some new Rule of contraries It must either come to pass by giving Liberty in general to Protestants of differing perswasions or else by giving Liberty to the Papists themselves as included in a general Liberty For the first I hope it appears evidently to have another tendency And for the second The giving Liberty to the Papists themselves amongst us no man well informed can imagine that they should be included in any such Liberty First Because in their Practice amongst us they refuse to give that publick assurance every Subject ought to give of his Fidelity that expects the favour due to a Subject And secondly Because their Principles are such that if they understand their own Religion they can never be good Subject to any Protestant State He that knows not this knows not the ROMAN RELIGION And to prove it so by Fact Amongst very many other Instances let what was done here in the time of Queen Elizabeth to her and at the same time in France to Henry the Fourth forever lie upon Record against them Nor can a Papist ever become a true and hearty Subject to a Protestant Prince but by that act he ceaseth to be so And as common Justice does deny them all pretentions to Liberty so common Equity opposeth them for as both they and their Religion abhor giving Liberty to any but themselves so is their practice accordingly for they never give Liberty to a Soul living that differs from them where they are able and dare deny it To say That Liberty of Conscience can have no other effect but to tolerate damnable Heresies and all kind of Sectaries which is the usual way of discoursing it and so to enlarge into all kind of Satyrical Rhetorick upon that Topick is to put a Bears skin upon it and then to bait it 'T will be to impose a thing of a very hard belief upon me to say That Truth never gains by Liberty and that the Imposer is alwayes in the right and the Sufferer in the wrong especially considering he that thinks me an Heretick another thinks him so and a fourth thinks us all so and all the while we are all of us weak imperfect fallible men sitting in judgment and sentencing one another And there can be no other end of it but that he that is strongest makes himself in the right and destroys the rest When ever Truth comes to suffer by Imposition as many times it does and comes afterwards to be so acknowledged the evil of such Imposition carries its own evidence But suppose such Truth never gets any good and Liberty should be only to men under Errors and Mistakes 't were not fit then to deny it that is 't were not fit then to impose upon them for Liberty is nothing but a Negative upon Force and Imposition
Here are several Souls who taking offence at your Ceremonies have forsaken my Church forsaken the Faith have run into Hell the Souls for which I shed my precious Blood why have you suffered this Nay Why have you occasioned this Will you answer It was to preserve our Ceremonies Will not Christ return unto you Are your Ceremonies more dear unto you than the Souls for which I dyed who hath required these Things at your Hands Will you for Ceremonies which you your selves confess to be indifferent no way necessary unto Salvation suffer your weak Brethren to perish for whom I dyed Have I not shewed you how David and his Souldiers were guiltless in eating the Shew-Bread which was not lawful but only for the Priest to eat David dispenced with a Ceremony commanded by God to satisfie the hunger of his People Will you not dispence with your own Ceremonies to satisfie the Souls of my People who are called by my Name and profess my Name though in weakness Or will you tell Christ They ought to suffer for their own Willfulness and Perverseness who will not submit to the Laws of the Church as they ought Will not Christ return Shall they perish for transgressing your Humane Laws which they ignorantly conclude Erronious and shall not you perish for transgressing my Divine Laws which you know to be Good and Holy Had I mercy on you and should you not have Mercy on your Fellow Servants With the same measure you meet it shall be measured to you again I tremble to go further but most humbly beseech you for Christs sake endeavour to regain these strayed Sheep for which he shed his precious Blood and think it as great an Advantage as great an Honour to you as it was unto St Paul to BECOME ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN That you may gain some doubtless you will many though not all and the few standing off will be the more convinced and at long running wearied out and gained also I shall only add something out of Allsop in his Book Entituled The Mischief of Impositions and so conclude this Chapter Mischief of Impositions p. 9. For Paul in his Admonition to the Church at Rome lays all the blame of the Separation not upon them that Seperate but on those that gave Cause to the Separation Rom 16.17 I beseech you Brethren mark those that cause Divisions and Offences among you and avoid them Where he points to us these three Things First That they which cause Divisions are the culpable Dividers the Imposers must be responsable for the Evil Consequences of their Impositions Secondly That it is Lawful nay a Duty to divide from those that unwarrantably give such Cause of Division Thirdly That any Condition of Communion Imposed BESIDES as well as against the Doctrine received from the Apostles is a sufficient ground to condemn the Imposer to justifie such as reject such Conditions c. And Pag. 2. There is nothing more common than to press the Necessity of UNION and yet at the same time continue the necessary Causes of Division which sort of Rhetoricians might do well to consider That whil'st they disclaim most passionately against the evil of Separation they do but whip their own Crimes upon their own Backs and reproach themselves by railing at other Mens Faults in which popular Discourses we hear of nothing but the Prejudice Passion Interest of those who will not Obey but not a word I warrant you of their own Pride Rigour and Imperiousness in what they Command always studying and pretending Reasons why Matters ought to be wrong but never offering rational Expedients to set what is wrong to rights Mischief of Impositions p. 48. As it is the Duty of all Men to preserve the Churches Peace so 't is theirs especially who have got the Management of things in their Hands not to lay such dubious Terms in the way of Peace which they know many Conscientious Persons cannot get over but have ever stumbled at for it may be returned with ease It is impossible to preserve Peace if Men will make such ORDERS as they know others must break meerly for the Fancy they have taken up of a Primitive Platform Secondly If Peace be impossible to be had upon this account Who are in the Fault Dissenters can Maintain a Fraternal Charity towards them and their Churches who differ from them in Principle and Practice If Imposers cannot or will not discharge their Duty reciprocally we are not Responsable for their Passions we can love them whether they will or no though we cannot force them against their will to return that Love and Charity And Pag. 61. Query What must be done by Church-Governours if Men cannot come up to their Established Rules And thus much of the Answer is exceeding obvious First That they had better sit still and do nothing than rise up and do Mischief let them do no more Harm than Good and let them be doing Secondly That if they must needs have more work to do let them be sure they have a Commission from God to do it lest while they do what they ought not to have done and leave undone those Things they ought to have done they make their Sins of Commission greater than their Sins of Omission Thirdly They may do well among all their Doings to consider whether Conscience be not Gods peculiar and so not within their Precincts out of their Jurisdiction and not lyable to their Scitations Prossesses Summons and Visitations If they will Judge let them be sure they be Competent Judges if they will be buisie let them beware it be not in Alieno Foro. 4thly If they would know what they must do to others let them first put the Case what they would have done to themselves let them do no more at home than they would have done to them Supposing they were Protestants in Italy or Spain it is very useful now and then for great Men to put themselves into poor Mens Circumstances I do not perswade them to change Places with them but to put Cases And Pag. 11. You may as soon whip these huge great Boys out of all Religion as out of one Ceremony so fond so doting so peevish froward aukward such a whimpering such a whining such a puling and pouting for Ceremonies as if they had lost that famous Engine of the Nutcrack c. Thus much may serve to shew their Approbation of that Liberty of Conscience which is every Christians just Priviledge and their Abhorrency of Impositions and that the ground of Discord Emulation and Division is in the Imposers who are the real Schismaticks c. CHAP. VI. Shews the Judgment of antient Protestants and Martyrs against Forcing a Conformity to Mens Traditions not Grounded on Scripture Authority I now shall proceed to shew some Testimonies of antient Protestants and Martyrs against Imposition which with what the two last Chapters mention together with what is held forth by the First Part may be a sufficient
be in such Fault as is surmised I say that Time will manifest such to be his greatest Enemies and I pray let such consider that if they thus resolve to keep him behind the Curtain as if he were ascended above the reach and out of the the Sight of his Breathren although it be the occasion of never so much Contention Debate and Strife I say let such consider if this be not more indiscretion than the World which we say lyes in Wickedness in their open Wars do at any time produce As for Example Suppose there was a very great Army laying Siege against a City and resolved to Raze it to the ground and to leave neither Man nor Woman alive except the Citizens would deliver up such a Captain to them who had betrayed his trust pretending an extraordinary Commission Yet acted in his own Name only and by Vertue thereof had been the chief Cause of that War and Bloodshed and upon Delivery up of that Imperious Arbitrary Captain all Wars should cease pray What City would be so sottish and so stupid as to hinder such a Malefactor from being brought to condign Punishment for his criminal Offences rather than run the hazard of so many thousands of innocent well meaning People on both Sides Oh William Let these things be considered on and let not the Wedge of Gold nor the goodly Babylonish Garment be thus hid any longer in the Camp but let a Search be made upon that very Consideration that something is amiss something is the Cause of all these things and let none say to me in disdain or out of Prejudice as Eliah said to his Brother David who came up to the Camp of the Lords Host though he was but a Stripling for if they do I will say unto them as David did i. e. Is there not a Cause 1. Sam. 28.29 and conclude with the Apostle Every Man ought to bear his own Burthen without respect to Persons That was once our Principle I have much to say and yet have said enough to shew my Desire and to clear my Mind whether thou wilt answer my Request yea or nay And Rest thy Friend Francis Bugg Address to Protestants Pag. 152. Principiis obsta sero Medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras Resist betimes that Medicine stays too long Which comes when Age has made the grief too strong And I wrote another Letter much to the same purpose on the 22d of the 6th Mo. and sent it to G. W. which for Brevities sake I here omit and the rather because it is amongst other things incerted as I understand in the latter End of the 7th Part of the Christian Quaker Distinguished c. put forth by W. R. in Answer to the Accuser c. And after I could have no Answer but instead thereof G. W. came to our Quarterly Meeting the 7th of the 7th Month 1681. and instead of healing Breaches was an Instrument and a great one too against Robert Smith of Colne his Proceedings in Marriage except he would go and Publish his Intention before the Women they being in number about five or six in a cold back Room by themselves according to G. F. his Order as heretofore I have treated on Insomuch that it came into my Mind to send him a few Queries a Copy whereof here follow Viz. The Letter as Prologue to them c. George Whitehead I Wrote to thee not long since to desire thy Assistance in a Composure of the late Differences but in thy last Journey I was loth to say Circuit this way thou hast shewed me and others thy Resolution It is reported that Nicholas Lucas told thee Thou wentest up and down to cheat the Country I reckon he meanes not of Money but the People of their Liberty they have right to Truly thy Behaviour hath manifested the Truth of his Words in a great measure as I am able to make appear not only by thy Advice in Huntington-shire but also by thy Erronious Doctrine amongst us if G. F. said true in his gospel-Gospel-Liberty pag. 23. And therefore to bring People to that which is not of Faith is to bring them into Sin and to make them make Shipwrack of their Faith and of a good Conscience But I believe the time is hastning that such as thou shall be oftner called in question than yet thou hast been for we begin to see the Truth of W. P's Doctrine who says in his Address to Protestants That the neglect of questioning our Ministers is the Cause both of Superstition and Schism However at present I desire and expect an Answer from thee touching these Things queried Viz. Either of thy Approbation of my Answer or an Answer of thine lest I spread them before thee in fairer Characters than my hand can write for thine and others Practices have brought you into suspition with the People for we see how you seek to usurp Authority over the Conscience and contray to your Pretentions exercise Dominion Gentile-like over your Brethren as if you were resolved to turn Monopolizers and Ingrocers of all Power Rule and Dominion over Consciences into your own Hands But your Authority is coming into Question and by the Holy Scripture which is by you so slighted must you be examined tryed and proved and the less you value the Scripture or Direction therefrom the less will you be valued and the more you magnifie your Directory Orders and Cannons which have no relation to the Scriptures or the Primitive Christians Example the more will your grow despised and turned from Wherefore consider your ways and wherein you can see and perceive your selves INNOVATORS and APOSTATES let there be a Return to your First Love Viz. when you loved both to give and receive Liberty in Matters Spiritual And do your first Works and do not think to heal your selves by calling others what you really are your selves for that will not now do By your Fruits you are manifest and we know you by them Oh! the Discord Contention and Debate which entred and doth dayly increase by reason of your Ceremonies and your forced Conformity to them and the chief Cause hereof lyes at your Doors for now as in Ages past the Leaders of the People cause them to Err who have greatly increased the Differences instead of healing the Breaches and that you may see as you are seen I have drawn before your view your Practices and thereby shewed you your Errour yet in as much as thou art more especially concerned I derect them to thee for a more immediate Answer Who am a Lover of Truth F. Bug. The 7th of the 8th Month 1678. A few Queries propounded to such amongst us who are crying up Holy ORDERS CHVRCH-GOVERNMENT and are adding new Ceemornies and Outward Observations whereby we thwart and contradict our avowed Principles and so are building again the thing we once destroyed and cryed out against Condemning in others the things we allow in our selves THROUGH which
De Christiana Libertate OR Liberty of Conscience Upon it's true and proper grounds ASSERTED VINDICATED And the Mischief of Impositions amongst the People called Quakers Made Manifest In Two Parts The First Proving That no Prince nor State ought by Force to Compel Men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel By a Nameless yet an Approved Author c. The Second Shewing the Inconsistency betwixt the Church-Government Erected by G. Fox c. and that in the Primitive Times being Historically Treated on To which is added A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians By Francis Bugg Mat. 15.9 But in vain do they Worship me teaching for Doctrine the Commandments and Traditons of Men. London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Enoch Presser at the Rose and Crown in Swithins Alley at the East End of the Royal Exchange 1682. AN EPISTLE Dedicatory TO H. N. Knight Honoured Friend WHereas accidentally or rather as I hope the Event will shew providentially I met with a small Tract Wrote many years since but by whom I know not there being no name to it Entituled Liberty of Conscience Asserted and Vindicated c. being the 1st Part of this Treatise and having found it upon perusing such an Eminent Piece upon that Subject at least in my apprehension that I thought my self oblieged to Publish the same both for the Information of the Magistracy and such with whom the Execution of the Penal Statutes is left and committed and also in favour of the Nonconformists in general even of all Perswasions amongst Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a quiet and peaceable Life under the Government who for Conscience sake cannot Conform to the Established Rules Orders Cannons and Constitutions and other Ceremonies of Prelatical Institution for Worship and Discipline and yet do and desire to live a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty under the Government in both which respects if diligently read and perused I am perswaded it will be of good Service and Information And when I came to a Resolution to Publish the same I thought it my Duty to Dedicate it to thy self of whose Moderation I have had many years Experience of thy Christian Charity towards such as differ from thee in some Points of Religious Matters of which I can produce many Witnesses to wit all my Friends in the County of Suffolk who lately stood Convict of Recusancy in the Exchequer wherein thou didst not act the Part of the Proud Pharisee who Salute their Brethren only nor yet of the Priest who can without any sense of Pitty easily pass by without taking any notice of the Suffering of others nay often times are the Cause of their Sufferings But like the Merciful and Sympathizing Samaritan took notice of our threatned Ruine and prevented it c. I am not unsensible that many yea very many are against Liberty of Conscience and especially those of the Spirituality so called as a Thing intollerable and unsufferable and not for the Kings Interest and their Arguments for Force and Compulsion and Corporal Punishments to be inflicted on the Nonconformists are not a few insomuch as that they too much resemble proud Haman who in his Address to King Ahasuerus cryed out in great Enmity and said There is a certain People scattered abroad and dispersed amongst the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all People neither keep they the Kings Laws Therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them c. As in Esther the 3d. and the 8th And for a full Replication to all their Arguments Either against Liberty of Conscience and the free Exercise of it in Matters purely Spiritual and a Christian Forbearance and mutual Condiscention to such as differ from them in some Ceremonies other Notions in Church-Discipline and Order AND FOR Corporal Punishment Impositions and Antichristian Force upon Conscientious Dissenters for some Differences in Matters of Oppinion I refer them to the First Part of this Treatise wherein in my Apprehension the Answer lyes ready to all their Alligations Thus having discharged my Duty to my Country in general and to thee in particular I conclude and rest a Lover of Peace desiring the Continuance of it in this World and that which is to come both for my self Neighbours and as many as persue it And Remain thy Friend in what I may or can Mildenhall the 25th of the 12th Mo. 1681. F. B. Liberty of Conscience Upon it true and proper Grounds Asserted and Vindicated The First Part. AMongst all the endowments bestowed upon the Sons of men nothing is to have a higher price and value put upon it than that we call Conscience because of the immediate reference it hath to the pleasing or displeasing of the great God and those more noble concerns of a better life and also the irresistible Influence it hath upon our selves to determine our well or ill being here CONSCIENCE is an Ability in the Understanding of man by a Reflect Act to judge of himself in all he does as to his acceptance or rejection with God this is the inward Rule he hath to walk by And 't is but reasonable to believe mankind bound to steer their course by what upon the utmost improvement of their understandings they know and believe best The proper seat of Conscience is in the Understanding and is no other thing but this Reflect Act of our knowledge back upon our selves dictating to us God's liking or disliking what we do as good or evil This ability is more or less according to the suitable light God affords to our understanding either inwardly or outwardly whether natural or divine and is indeed to each man the Rule of all other Rules God is pleased to govern him by for whether it be by natural Light or divine Revelation still the utmost bounds of his Conformity lies in the knowledge and conception he hath of it and of his duty in reference unto it So that the information of the understanding is still the guide of the Conscience for when we become once convinced that this or that is Gods will my understanding reflects back to my self and tells me This is my Duty in reference to it and so comes in upon each man the obligation of that we call Conscience which is indeed so unavoidable a Reflection suitable to the conviction and impression the understanding lies under that no man hath power in himself if he would to escape it Conscientiam non esse judicium theoreticum quo verum à falso simpliciter discernitur sed puncticum quo particulariter illa cognitio applicatur ab homine ad illud quod ipsi vel bonum vel malum est ut sit interna Regula dirigens voluntatem Ames de cas Consci That there was at first in Adam a clear and perfect knowledge of God and of himself is not to be doubted and that there was this
never delegated to any substitute upon Earth nor was there since the World began a judgment entrusted in any hands over the Consciences of men nor was it indeed under a possibility to be since no man nor men with the existence of humane Power could ever come to know the state of another mans Conscience nor the manifold Circumstances only open to a divine Eye relating to it and therefore does Paul himself to the Corinthians wholly disclaim the exercise of such a Power The simple actings therefore of Conscience abstractedly considered are not capable of a forcible impression from without nor need any man fear the loss of liberty of Conscience in that sense of it nor reckon himself under an obligation to any indulgence for it since a donation of it from any will with no more reality afford it to me than a restraint from them will any way actually take it from me That which will as most proper and genuine to the present enquiry proposed come under consideration will be How far the products and effects of Conscience in mens actings in pursuance of it are to be indulged and how far restrained and this will all come under two Heads First How far men are to be suffered to do or not to do those things which they say they are in Conscience obliged to do Secondly How far men are to be urged by commands to do such things which they say they are in Conscience obliged not to do That a punctual clear Answer to these Questions will be a Travel of great peril undertaken none that have any way versed themselves in such Controversies will deny and therefore the better to secure our progress herein it will be necessary chiefly and principally to reflect upon the Magistrate and the Power he is entrusted withal this method will carry its own evidence sufficiently with it If we consider the power that mankind hath over each other is exercised by him and that the success of this notion and the influence both of freedom and restraint depends solely upon him and that the power of Princes and Magistrates do actually bind and loose in matters of this nature I say if we consider this we shall soon make a discovery that finding out what the Magistrate may do and what he may not do in Religious affairs will give us a determination of this matter In the prosecution of this these several things shall be attempted First To make it evident that Magistracy is an Institution grounded upon the Light of nature and how far he may and ought to proceed by that both negatively and positively in these things Secondly That a Magistrate by becoming Christian receives no addition of Power to what he had before only stands bound to an improved exercise of his Power suitable to the light he then receives Thirdly To discover some eminent mistaken extreams about the Magistrates Power in Religion which have miserably involved us And Lastly To shew how far the Magistrate under the Gospel should and ought to act about Religion and wherein he is not to interpose his Power the right stating whereof is the true and solid Foundation upon which all true Liberty of Conscience is built For the first of these That Magistracy and Government is an Institution grounded upon the Light of Nature is easie enough to be made appear the first rise of it being in Families where it was wholly natural and paternal and therefore it is that the first Commandment wherein all subjection to Superiors is commanded is comprehended under the Obedience of Children required to their Parents that being the first Magistratical Power exercised That first Power and Authority God gave Adam upon the Fall over the woman being a distinguishing Power between the two Sexes and not properly any Magistratical Power relating to a Community After there came to be several divided Families in the World they found a necessity of a Power that might have a larger and farther extent than that in each Family which could be no otherwise grounded than by a joynt and common consent God having not by particular designation appointed any to rule over the World and no one Family could claim a right to rule over another nor could the first born in any family exercise any Power or extend his Dominion farther than that particular Family The reason whereof seems plain because that paternal Power which is originally in a family is not successive there is no succession of that power Parents have over their Children and Masters have over their Servants which is the ground of Family-Government farther than those relations still reach Hence it is the Power a Parent might exercise in his Family as a Father and a Master he cannot exercise upon any of his Kindred or other collateral Relations in any degree further and therefore that kind of Dominion must needs rest circumscribed within the bounds of each particular Family and that more extensive Government of many Families together was by a joynt-coalition and agreement of them dictated by the Light of Nature for general good there being scarce any thing a more necessary direction of Nature for mans own Preservation and Good since his Fall than to associate himself in a Community under one common Government How the Light of Nature did at the first operate upon men to convince them of a necessity to joyn together in a subjection to Superiors and how greatly their interest lay in such a subjection relative to such a publick Dominion we may some-what discover if we consider First That the Earth was at the first the Gift of the great Creator to the Sons of Adam and what every man first possessed was his own and whatever he could by his labour produce from it the same Law that is to this day to the first Discoverers of any unpossessed part of the World Now the only way to preserve men in such a Propriety and to make good that first Law of Gods donation was to have by common consent a publick power to take care of it and restrain the violence and exorbitant injustice that would otherwise have filled the World Secondly When private differences came to arise between man and man between cause and cause it would prove imposible to end any strife while each man would be a Judge in his own case and therefore it was found impracticable for men to live without a third Judgment which did necessarily point them to a Magistrate Thirdly Man was not only a sociable Creature in himself made to live in society and prompted by particular inclination to it but each man came to see men had common Concerns one with another and Interests of a publick nature beyond the bounds of their own particular Families there could be no way found out to capacitate them to enjoy those common advantages they might afford each to other but by imbodying themselves together and creating a publick Relation each to other in one joynt-society the very being of
which must needs lie in having one to rule over it and to exercise that publick care requisite to its preservation to which no mans private power or concern either could or ought to lead him Lastly The sensible good each Family found in that Paternal Regiment exercised within it self might well induce them to fall into that more general and to unite themselves under one Political Father in whose care and protection they might live secured These and many other necessary inforcements upon the common sense and experience of men induced the power of commanding and the reason of obeying That God that afforded to each Creature a capacity large enough for its own preservation did not leave Man without sufficient light to discover this great Engine of his safety and happiness Well may we then look upon the power of Magistracy as the greatest and most transcendant of all humane things and pay the due tribute of all Reverence and Obedience to it as being the Soveraign Power of God exercised in a way of Vicegerency amongst men and that wherein the peace and quiet of mankind is most necessarily included The Law and Light of Nature having thus from the beginning placed the Magistrate in his Throne the same also did lead and guide him to the exercise of his Power by bringing him under this obligation to do whatsoever should be found necessary to the good of mankind both in their private and publick capacity and restrain whatsoever is destructive to it this as it brings Princes and Magistrates to a tye of duty so is the donation of this Power exceeding large and ample The First thing in which the power of the Magistrate is naturally exerted is in his own preservation wherein his Power is Paramount to all pretensions whatsoever As in Nature each mans supream Law lies in self-preservation who is bid to love his Neighbour but as himself So politically in Magistracy the preservation of it self in its Power and Prerogative and the exercises thereof is the first thing 't is led to look after he is to preserve himself in order to that preservation he is to afford to others 'T were very absurd to suppose a Magistrate bound to tolerate any thing destructive to his being no pretence of Conscience is here to be suffered 't is a practice against the Law of Nature 't is to pretend Conscience to annihilate mankind God hath not nor will not promulge Laws to interfere one with another nor will he ever reveal any thing against the standing Law of Nature it being the remains of mans excellent creation at first but what shall heighten and improve it to a further perfection Herein therefore Princes and States are sufficiently secured by a power inherent in their very being that no abused pretensions of a Liberty for Conscience can ever invade or disturb them Secondly The extent of the Magistrates power reacheth to a total suppression of all moral evil and encouragement of all moral good and that for these Reasons First moral evil is an abomination to every mans Conscience and therefore ought to be much more so to the Magistrate who hath the only power of suppressing and punishing it Secondly moral evil and vice is most injurious to mankind and destructive to that well-being and quiet the Magistrate is bound to provide for Thirdly It brings down sensible and visible Judgments upon Persons and Societies with a voice easie enough to be heard by any natural ear and therefore the Magistrate by the very Light of Nature is loudly enough called upon to suppress it This we have clear enough set down in the 13th of the Romans where the Magistrate is said to be a terrour to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well the Magistrates power is there fully asserted but it seems to be but the same power he had before his Commission seems only to be renewed with the same power he had from the beginning that the Apostle there speaks nothing of the power of Magistrates beyond what the Light of Nature gives them seems to be very clear in two things First in that he instanceth in the present Roman power that then was and Secondly because he sets down nothing that the Magistrate is to do but what the Light and Law of Nature doth directly guide him unto That the Apostle speaks of Magistracy in general is plain and that he speaks of it in the present instance of the then Roman Power is as plain now if all that belongs to the Magistracy in the abstract had not been compleat in the Roman power as to the right of it the instance had been no way proportionate nor right The Apostle writing to Rome no doubt intended to declare the Principles of the Gospel to be such as taught all subjection to the Emperor he says The Powers that be are ordained of God speaking in the present sense of those that then were and he says For this cause pay you Tribute that is the present Tax you pay the Roman Emperor is upon this very account so that he carries on the instance of Magistracy all along in the Roman Heathen power Secondly he speaks of nothing to be done by the Magistrate but what the Light of nature dictates and what was the duty of the Emperor then to do to execute wrath upon him that doth evil and to encourage those that do well wherein he is a Minister of God to us for very much good By this we see then this farther power of restraint in the Magistrate in his natural constitution that being to suppress all moral evil and encourage virtue he is bound not to suffer upon any false pretensions of Conscience whatsoever any practices that discourage the one or fall within the guilt of the other These forementioned and unquestionable generals do contain in them the negative and positive execution of the Magistates natural power in things purely moral and political How far he is by the Light of Nature obliged about the Religious concerns of his Subjects and wherein the Light of Nature lays an Arrest upon him not to proceed that so the due liberty of each mans Conscience may be secured will come under a more pertinent consideration in a following part of this discourse We see by these things the Magistrate negatively impowered in an ample manner in his first constitution over all things relating to the moral and political good of mankind The Light of Nature excludes all such Principles from the least toleration which make men cease to be true Subjects to the State or good Common-wealths-men in relation to others Liberty of Conscience is best secur'd by disclaiming such who neither by natural or divine Law can make any just pretence to it 'T is only to be given in things divine and supernatural such as neither destroy nor disturb the civil and political Interests and Rights of men The second thing proposed about the Magistrate will have no hardship to make appear That a Magistrate
the Gospel and Christs wisdom in these things as that Church will be most pure as having nothing of humane make in it so it will perfectly annihilate all those pretended necessities for the interposition of humane Authority about such things If the Magistrate hath likewise a farther power to suppress all Errors and Heresies and to establish by force the Orthodox Truth the Rule of which must needs be what he thinks to be so this will inevitably follow that there can be never any such thing as Liberty of Conscience in any case or upon any terms in the world under a Christian Magistrate he sins if he suffer to tolerate any thing but what he thinks punctually right If he be the proper Judge entrusted first to judge and then to execute his Judgment with the Temporal Power all Liberty to whosoever is not of his mind is perfectly gone This is no other than to make the Magistrate's Power a meer Inquisition And by this means a Christian Magistrate will prove a marvellous hurt to much of the Church where he governs for unless you will suppose all the Truth and all sound Christians to be included in what he establishes for Orthodox if there be any Truth or true Professors of Christianity amongst all the other Opinions he persecutes they are sure to be sufferers and it will ever fall out that all those that are not of the Magistrates Opinion had better live under one of Gallio's temper than under a Magistrate so practising These large positions about the Magistrates Power have no visible ground for themselves in the Gospel and when 't is said the reason of it is because there was no Christian Magistrate till long after and so little mention is made of his Authority in these things there is nothing said that can be any way satisfactory because what Power soever any shall exercise in or over the Gospel Church to the end of the world must have its rise and derivation from what was then established by Christ and his Apostles However they are sure of a popular acceptance 1. Because they bring us to a visible Judge and a humane certainty which most men had rather be at than a laborious inquiry after divine Truth in the way God hath revealed it in the Scriptures And 2. Because they are positions that land us in a very safe harbour and free us from any danger of suffering about those things he that thinks it his duty to be alwayes of the Magistrates Religion is so secured in that duty that no Religion can possibly ever hurt him and whoever thinks the Magistrate is Gods substitute to determine all matters of Religion as he pleaseth must needs think it a duty to be of his mind The second Extream about the Magistrates Power is in asserting the Magistrate to have ample concerns about Religion and a power sufficient entrusted to him but the manner in which it is to be exercised is in a punctual suberviency to the Church that is they are to determine and he is to execute they are to be his eye and he is to be their hand As the first Extream debaseth the Church and all Ecclesiastical power under the Magistrates feet and makes him the sole Lord of all so this in another extream makes the Magistrate a Slave to the Church this is an unreasonable Imposition upon him and gives him less liberty than each private Christian ought to have to oblige him to put a civil Sanction and execute by his Authority whatever the Church decrees whether he judge it to be right or no this is only to make him a Sword-bearer to the Clergy This is the great Engine by which the Church of Rome has inslaved so much of the World Antichrist could never have been setled in his Throne if Kingdoms had not thus given up their power to him How shamefully upon this pretence that the Civil power must be subject to the Ecclesiastical have the Popes of Rome brought Kings and Emperors not only to employ their power as they pleased but to suffer all the scorns and indignities from them imaginable The story of what Hildebrand did to the Emperor Henry and many others do abundantly shew this The truth is the carnal Conjunction of the Temporal Power with the Spiritual is that which has made all Ecclesiastical Regiment odious and unsavoury in the nostrils of the world in all Ages and hath had no other effect but to enable the Clergy under a pretext of the power of the Gospel to trample by the power of the World mankind under their Feet That the Civil Magistrate ought not to employ his power in such a sub-ordination let these things be considered First This is to suppose either an insufficiency in that Spiritual Power which Christ did at first leave in his Church or else that he fails in that Promise of being with them to the end of the World and continuing his Presence to make his Laws effectual for the end they are intended Christ hath appointed the means of Converting men to the Gospel to be the preaching of it to them If you will compel men by the Civil power to become Converts it plainly intimates we judge Christs way insufficient and use the other as what we judge a better As Christ hath appointed Preaching the Gospel as the great means to bring men into the Church so he hath appointed Excommunication as the great means to cast offenders out of the Church and force is as unreasonable in the one as in the other The outward advantages a man has by becoming a Christian lies in the enjoyment of all Christs Institutions and the punishment of all Gospel-crimes lies in being cast out from those priviledges and undergoing the weight that Christ shall lay upon the Conscience thereby When a person is excommunicated to deliver him over to the Temporal power to be corporally punished must either be because we think Christs punishment in that case not enough or else because our own animosity prompts us to go farther Chrysost Serm. de Anathem hath a pious and prudent saying Dogmata impia quae ab Hereticis profecta sunt arguere Anathematizare opertet hominibus autem parcendum pro salute eorum orandum that is We must confute and pronounce Anathema to the wicked opinions of Hereticks but we must spare their Persons and pray for their Salvation Secondly This way alters the manner of Christs rule under the Gospel which is in the Spirits and Consciences of men 'T is much of Christs glory to rule his Subjects under the Gospel by a Spiritual power 't is that power makes a man a Christian 't is that power in all Gospel Institutions that keeps men in their due obedience unto Christ and 't is that power carries the sting of the punishment when men are cast out of the Church 't is indeed that power does all under the Gospel and to bring in the Temporal Sword is to make the weapons of the
the Heathens Homer tells us of Princes and Heroes that Sacrificed and performed the Worship to the gods In Rome 't was manifestly so the first Roman Kings did the like Since Magistracy and Ministry has been distinctly exercised still the Inspection and Regulation of Religion and the Officers Ecclesiastical have been in the Magistrate Under the Law 't was plainly so Under the Gospel so soon as there was a Christian Magistrate that could exercise such a Power we find it so The right was the same in the Heathen powers which happily was the ground of Paul's Appeal unto Caesar though they could not then exercise it There is nothing more plain than that there may be a Right where there is not an Ability to exercise it Constantine and the Christian Emperors after him till the Church of Rome had cheated them into subjection took upon them the care and over-sight of all Religious things and to see all Christs Laws executed Constantine used to call himself The general Bishop to take care that all things were duly performed in the Church Amongst our selves we reap the Advantage of our Kings and Princes care and concern in that enjoyment we have of the Protestant Religion This shews the great weakness on the one hand of such who say the Magistrate hath nothing to do with Religion and the perfect mistake of those on the other hand who would have the Magistrate wholly Subordinate to the Church and the third extream in those who would place the Magistrate in so supream a Power as upon the matter to do what he pleaseth will be sufficiently enervated if we consider That as the Magistrate is to see that executed that Christ hath appointed in Religion so he is to bring in nothing of his own he is punctually tyed up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor the manner his business is to see Laws executed not to make Laws nor change Laws Christ has no where granted any such Commission either to the Magistrate or any else upon Earth and therefore we come to a right state of the Magistrates Power when we consider him as Gods chief Officer in the World directed by the Light of Nature as well as otherwise to see that which God reveals to be his Will put in execution And that which comes particularly to the present matter in hand That he doth it under the Gospel in the manner Christ hath appointed The manner Christ hath appointed being as positively obliging as the matter and therefore the Temporal Sword when 't is used by Magistrates in the concerns of the Gospel is the Dead Fly that corrupts all their otherwise very laudable endeavours Nor need it seem strange that a Magistrate should have the care and over-sight of that wherein he is not to use the Temporal power as he is to endeavour to see that done by others under the Gospel as the Administration of the Sacraments and the like which he is not to do in his own person so he is to see that done by the Spiritual means Christ hath appointed for it which he is by no means to force the doing of by the Temporal power He that thinks the Magistrate cannot be useful to the Church without the Temporal power may with as good reason say That all other powers in the Church are useless where there is not the Temporal Sword to execute them All Societies of men are under the Regulation of the highest power but yet may act and ought to do so by distinct and proper wayes and by means suitable to each A Colledge of Physitians in a State are under the Regulament of the highest Power and yet it were very absurd to force them to give Physick as a thing in it self both unnatural and unreasonable The case is much more so in the Church nor can any instance fully reach it because the Church is a distinct thing of it self and hath Powers proper and peculiar to it in which it is so compleat that it can subsist without the Magistrate as it did in the primitive times The Civil and Ecclesiastical Power are things perfectly in themselves distinct and ought in their exercise to be kept so The highest Power governs men as men by the temporal Sword but as Christians by the spiritual and by seeing all things done in Religion by those spiritual means Christ hath appointed all which means he may make use of though exercised by other hands than his own and still in a subordination to him as Christ's chief Officer in the World who hath the Charge incumbant upon him to see all that Christ hath commanded duely put in execution But the Magistrate himself with the Power proper to him which is the temporal is not immediately to act any thing in the Church what he does is in a collateral way that were to bring a new Officer into the Church and a Power new and forreign to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature and totally destructive to the being of it The Magistrate hath wayes such as Christ thought sufficient to promote the good of Religion and propagate the growth of the Gospel without drawing the civil Sword which will make no more impression in spiritual concerns than it will do upon a Ghost that hath no real body In the execution of those he ought to acquiesce but if not content therewith he will use the civil Power to force men to believe and worship according to his Light and will take Offenders in the Church and punish them by his temporal Power what is this but to lord it over Gods Heritage and to make the Gospel Church and being a Member of it a thing of greater outward carnal fear bondage and subjection to men than ever the Law was This use of the temporal Power is the sting that wounds all liberty of Conscience and totally overthrows it If the Magistrate where I live be an Arrian a Socinian or in any such Error while he enforceth this but in a Gospel way and in Christs way of enforcing Truth only by instruction and perswasion this doth not mortally wound me this does not Petere jugulum of my liberty to keep to the Truth but if he come to establish it by the civil Power and by that suppress all else as Error my liberty in a differing perswasion is totally gone The admitting the Magistrate to use the temporal Power in executing his judgment about Religion hurries every man out of the world that is not of his mind for whatsoever will make a man an Heretick will bring a man to the Stake and every Opinion that is not the Magistrate's must needs make a man so If Christ hath enjoyned the temporal Power to be used it must have its utmost effect not only upon Hereticks within but much more upon those that are Infidels without the Church If the Magistrate be appointed to use such a power he must not tolerate any thing upon any terms nor exempt it from the lash of
that power Where will he find a Rule in the Gospel to bear with some kind of Heresies and not with others He must not make submitting to a civil Penalty to compensate for an Heresie unless Christ had appointed that as the punishment of it that 's a selling of sin and making a bargain for iniquity for his own advantage and profit That therefore which the Magistrate under the Gospel may not do and without him I am sure the Church cannot do in which negative restraint upon him all Liberty of Conscience is comprehended and the Freedom Christ hath so dearly and fully purchased comprised and which is chiefly intended to be made good by this discourse shall be declared in this following Position which is That no Prince nor State ought by force to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel The proof of which shall lie in the Reasons following First 'T is a thing against the light of nature so to do and if the Magistrates Power be grounded in the light of nature then to do a thing against that light of nature must needs be very Heterogeneal and wholly out of his compass it must needs be against the common Light and Reason of mankind to force me to be believe a thing wholly out of the compass of my knowledge and capacity and which nature reveals not to me Such are all Gospel Truths they are not like the matters of the moral Law but they are things purely supernatural and of divine Revelation such things as from the beginning of the world eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor never entred into any mans heart to conceive of these things the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man with all the endowments of nature discerneth not because they are spiritually discerned No man can call Jesus the Christ but by the holy Ghost Will you punish a man for not having the holy Ghost that is no way in his power to get but is like the Wind that bloweth where and when it lists 'T is a strange contradiction to our common reason to force men about things wholly unknown to them and out of their own power If Force should be used at any time it should be to bring men from Paganism to Christianity for without that we cannot be saved but when once Christians we may be saved under different apprehensions and yet we may not force a man to be a Christian 1st because 't is unlawful and 2dly because 't is impossible 'T is not lawful because 't is not Christs way of making Christians nor a means by him appointed for that purpose 2dly 'T is impossible because force upon men will never beget or change Principles or Opinions And as we should not force men at the first to the Gospel because till God reveals it we are wholly ignorant of it so we should not force men that are under the Gospel to any thing they believe not for they are as great strangers still to every farther attainment of knowledge in the Gospel till God please to reveal it as they were at first to the whole and therefore the Apostle calls us to patience in these things one with another till God please to reveal himself The light of nature must needs condemn that practice for another to force me about such things wherein my own eternal good or ill is only concerned where it is not to be imagined that I can have any aim but my own Salvation and can hurt none by my belief but my self When I have used rational suitable means to inform another I ought to acquiesce it being not a supposition to be made that a man would willingly design that which he knows will be his own ruin and which will hurt no body but himself He that forceth me to a Religion makes me hate it and makes me think there wants reason and other evidence to evince it Nature abhors compulsion in Religious things as a spiritual rape upon the Conscience No man by the light of nature was ever angry with another for not quitting his Conscience till his judgment was suitably informed because every man finds it an impossibility in himself so to do That which some say That though we may not force men to believe yet men may be forced to the outward means of believing is very little to the purpose for if by outward means they mean a bare outward act distinct from any Religious Worship no doubt Superiors may command it but if they mean any Religious means if the means be such as my Conscience is not satisfied in I ought not to be forced to it if it be such as I am satisfied in force is altogether needless and it belongs not to this Discourse Secondly To use force in Religion is wholly unlawful in any hand whatever because 't is no means appointed by Christ to bring about any Gospel end For the Magistrate to enforce the Laws of the Gospel by temporal power or compel men into the Gospel by such a power is to act without the least Precept or President and to induce an Engine to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature of Christs Kingdom which is not of this world and contrary to the nature of all Gospel institutions The Magistrate as he should be careful to see the Gospel put in execution so in the manner Christ in his wisdom hath appointed for the doing of it which is by his own Institutions and his own invisible power operating and working with them The great Rule of the Gospel is a rule of the Spirit in the hand of Christ as Mediator and 't is a Rule in the hearts and spirits of men and to set up a Rule by any humane power over any part of the Gospel is highly to derogate from that mediatory dominion of Christ nay to use force is not only to act without but against the declared mind of Christ Does not Paul positively deliver this That the Weapons of the Gospel are not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God 'T is not Faggots and Halters but spiritual means by which men are both to be brought in and cast out of the Gospel Church 'T is hearing and not forcing by which Faith is wrought The sword of the Spirit is the weapon by which Christ does all yea by which he will destroy Antichrist the greatest Gospel-enemy the world hath produced Among all the arguments that are brought to prove the Compulsatory Power of the Magistrate under the Gospel the greatest weight is laid upon the Practice of the Kings of Israel and Judah and what they did under the Law in compelling men to the Worship of God then established In the due consideration whereof we shall find the truth in hand no way invalidated and that what was then done by the Kings of Israel and Judah cannot reasonably be made a Rule to Magistrates now under the Gospel and that the Analogy will no way hold may be made
forcing men to perform Gospel-Duties in Hypocrisie Moral Actions are positively good and evil in their own nature Gospel-Duties performed are only so as they are circumstantiated And therefore the two Instances of Ahab and the Ninevites will no way fit this matter What was done by the Ninevites for ought appears was well done with all the circumstances that should make it to be so for our Saviour saith They repented at the Preaching of Jonah What Ahab did will be clearly differenced in two things First it was a voluntary action And Secondly it was only a Moral action 'T was voluntary for it arose from the dictates of his own Conscience upon what the Prophet Elijah said to him And Secondly it was purely a Moral act his Humiliation was no other He himself was an Hypocrite and his Service was hypocritical and abominable in the sight of God yet the outward act of his Humiliation was in it self good and God rewards it with an outward blessing That men may be compelled about actions Morally good and evil is out of doubt and that God does likewise with outward blessings and judgments reward and punish Moral good and evil is also plain But herein lies the difference of forceing men in things Moral and things Divine In things Moral the action in it self however circumstantiated is positively good or evil Things of Divine Institution are quite otherwise there the manner of the performance makes the action good or evil He that sacrificeth an Ox is as if he killed a man he that killeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck Where the manner of performing the command is not observed as well as the bare outward act of performance And so in all Gospel Duties the Institutions of Christ as Baptism the Lords Supper and the rest the actions themselves in those things are not simply good nay they are accidentally evil unless they have all the due circumstances attending them the goodness of those things depends wholly upon Institution and there the manner as well as the matter must be punctually observed Nay the manner of doing such things determines the matter of them for if they be performed in their due manner the Action is good if not the Action it self is sinful Having thus far endeavoured to establish this Truth That the exercise of force by the hand of the civil Power is ho means appointed by Christ either for setling or regulating the Churches of the New-Testament and is a thing in its own nature altogether unreasonable so to be And that Princes and Magistrates under the Gospel should imploy their care to see the Laws of Christ's Kingdom put in execution in the way and manner he himself hath appointed and ought to rest themselves satisfied therewith as that which his infinite Wisdom hath provided and to leave things that are purely Gospel-offences to Gospel-punishments as most adaequate and proper knowing well that if after such punishments inflicted Errors and Heresies shall continue in the Church Christ will over-rule the Being of them for holy ends and purposes acccording to that of Paul There must be Heresies that those that are approved may be made manifest which though it be no good ground to indulge Heresie from any punishment Christ hath appointed for it yet 't is a very good ground to satisfie our selves upon after all Christs means used and to stop us from all violent and irregular proceedings when we consider That Christ will extract good out of such evil and turn such things to his own Glory and the good of such as are sincere I say having endeavoured the proof of these things that the plainest Truths of the Gospel ought not to be enforced upon men much less those more doubtful and obscure concerning Discipline and Order of the obscurity of which there needs no other evidence than that the holiest wisest and most impartial men have in all Ages differed about them How may we lament over the present Imposition of the Ceremonies now enjoyned amongst us in England which are no part of Divine Truth nor any of Christs Institutions but things perfectly Humane in their creation and yet are enforced by the civil Power upon the practice and Consciences of men If Christ did not appoint his own Laws to be inforced upon the Church but to be received and executed by the influence and operating power of the Holy Ghost concurring with them How little pleased will he be to have Laws and Rules made by others to be so inforced If it be neither reasonable nor warrantable for a Magistrate to inforce the Truths of the Gospel in his own sense of them How much less is it so to enjoyn things in the Worship of God wholly framed by men and of their devising Those as being Divine are in their own nature infallible and certainly true These as being Humane are lyable to all Error and Mistake How unmerciful a thing is it and how unlike the Primitive Christians to make such Ceremonies a Rule of the Churches Communion which used to be nothing but the Creed That a man now only out of Conscience to God and without a just imputation of either Faction or Folly or any other designed end may very well become a Non-Conformist to these present imposed Ceremonies hath been often evinced These things may afford us some prospect into those grounds upon which Liberty of Conscience ought to be asserted and also the due and natural bounds of it When men discoursing of this Subject are enumerating what parties may be tolerated and what not What Fundamentals are necessary to be believed to make a man a capable Subject of this Liberty and how far the punishment is to be inflicted upon men for matters of this Nature are to proceed and where to be terminated they do but lose themselves and come to be involved with inextricable inconveniences and do usually little more then discover their own particular inclinations and interests and at last often end in this Determination That none are fit to be Indulged but such as are punctually of their own belief and perswasion The general Laws of Nature and the general Laws of the Gospel are the best Umpire in this Case As the first renders it a thing unreasonable so the other makes it unlawful to tolerate any thing upon any pretence against the common Light and the common Interest and natural good of mankind And so on the other hand 't is equally as unreasonable and as unlawful to force men about things wholly Supernatural and purely Spiritual and so are all the matters of the Gospel which lie seated in mens Belief and Perswasion in reference to their own Eternal Condition and as they have no proper relation to Humane Concerns so they are in Aliena republica and are only cognizable there and only to be dealt with by such Spiritual means and punishments as Christ in the Gospel hath appointed for that end Hear the Opinion of the Learned Alsted on this subject at
large De pace Religionis ut vocant seu de Libertate Religionis seu de bono Autonomiae An quatenus concedi possit a pio Magistratu Concerning Liberty of Religion and how far it may be granted by a pious Magistrate he saith That though the Magistrate be to defend but one Religion even that which he judges to be Truth by the Word of God yet none ought to be compelled to that by outward force but every mans Conscience to be left at Liberty Et nonnunquam diversaram Religionum exercitium si non publicum saltem privatum aut clandestinum ex singularibus causis permittendum esse statuimus Atque hoc demum sensit pacem concordiam externam seu politiam inter Orthodoxos non Orthodoxos saepe etiam Hereticos simul colendam ab ipso pio Magistratu procurari posse debere existimamus And he gives these three following Reasons for his Judgment Prima nititur generalibus illis Scripturae dictis quae justiciam charitatem studiumque pacis concordiae serò nobis omnibus commendant ne quid aliter adversus proximum statuamus quam qualiter nobiscum agi vellemus diserte praecipiunt Denique at conscientiis suam libertatem concedamus dissentientes in negotio Religionis amice toleremus omnino mandant Mat. 5.7 Rom. 12.14 alibi Secunda petitur ab exemplis sapientium piorum Regum tum in veteri tum in novo Testamento c. Tertia ab ipsa naturali Equitate itemque adjuncta utilitate quam etiam experientia quotidiana fere comprobat Nam praeterquam quod aequissimum est in causa Religionis ab omni vi coactione externâ abstinere ipsis etiam rebus publicis ut ita fiat omnino expedit atque conducit quippe quae alioqui facillime turbarentur ut intestinis bellis ac mutuis lanienis tandem considerent prout hactenus in multis Europae provinciis Galliâ praesertim Belgio accidisse novimus Cum contra in Germania Helvetia Polonia alibi locorum in quibus Religionum libertas hactenus indulta fuit istis discordiis lanienis non fuerit locus Ergo resipsa per se licita bona est etiam si per accidens abusus aliquis accidere possit Alst de Eccl. Lib. 4. Cap. 14. What can be said with more truth and soberness about this matter LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE The Magistrates Interest Or To grant Liberty of Conscience to Persons of Different Perswasions in matters of Religion is the Great Interest Of all Kingdoms and States and particularly of ENGLAND Asserted and Proved HAving thus far considered those things which do most immediately reflect upon the Magistrates Duty in allowing a due Liberty to each mans Conscience We will in the next place consider how far his Interest engages him this way That 't is the great Interest of all Protestant States and particularly of England To give Liberty to men of differing Apprehensions in the Protestant Religion is evident if we consider That a Prince or State by imposing the Principles of any one party in Religion makes himself of that party and engages all the rest against him 'T is no way prudent for a Prince when his Subjects consist of many differing Judgments to resolve to have them all of one mind a thing impracticable or else to be their declared Enemy and Persecutor 't is a ready way to interrupt his own quiet and repose without any other effect for he will never by force and violence unite them in one Opinion those differences will rather be fomented and all Animosities arising thereupon and men rather fixed and confirmed by such Persecution than any way removed from their Principles by it 'T is not the having several parties in Religion under a State that is in it self dangerous but 't is the persecuting of them that makes them so First It puts them all under discontent and then unites them together in such discontent Thuanus a wise States-man saith Heretici qui pace datâ factionibus franguntur persecutione uniuntur contra Rem Publicam Those who in their Principles largely differ from each other when they come to be all bound up together in one common Volumn and linked in the same chain of Persecution and suffering will be sure to twist themselves into an united Opposition to such an undistinguishing severity Whereas the thing in it self rightly considered so many divided Interests and Parties in Religion are much less dangerous than any and may be prudently managed to ballance each other and to become generally more safe and useful to a State than any united party or interest whatever He that is suffered to enjoy under a State the freedom of his Religion when differing from the publick Profession has not only the common tye of a Subject upon him for his protection as a man but the cumulative obligation and thanks to pay for his Indulgence as a Christian under such a Character Subjects in such a posture as they will ever be studious of an opportunity to testifie their grateful fidelity and by some eminent service to lay up a stock or Merit that may secure their future quiet so they will be of any most careful not to forfeit so pleasing an Indulgence by falling under a publick displeasure A Prince in such a state of things by making himself a common Father to the whole Protestant Religion though made up of some differences within it self will be secured not only of that common Homage of Obedience and Subjection but with it that more noble of the Hearts and Affections of all his Protestant Subjects To say any party in Religion is disaffected to a State and therefore not fit for such favour when such disaffection if it be does plainly arise from the Severity of the State against them in that case the reason why favour should not be shewed is removed by showing of it For as persecuting men for their Religion must necessarily disgust them so giving them the freedom of it must needs equally oblige them 'T is no true measure to take of any parties in Religion to say the one are better Subjects than the other when the one are favoured and countenanced and the other still kept under and oppressed There is no reason but to believe there is an equal Tendency in all to love that Prince or State where they find favour and protection 't is a common disposition runs in the blood of all men and by how much the Principles of any party are less taking and plausible the less dangerous still is that party and as they will need favour more than others so they must needs lie proportionably secured to a State by the Obligation is put upon them Take it for Truth which is commonly affirmed That all such for whom Liberty is at any time desired are men full of Faction and full of Error For the first 't is certain Persecution will not only continue but foment
such Faction and give it a plausible pretence to justifie it self upon whereas a Liberty granted in matters of Conscience will either wholly win such men to a due and hearty Obedience as finding themselves in a posture they cannot expect to mend or else will lay them open to such apparent justice for punishment and bring them under such a general contempt as shall leave them stript of all pretensions and render them wholly inconsiderable 'T is marvellous prudence to separate between Conscience and Faction which can never be but by a Liberty of the one that so they may distinctly punish the other He that hath liberty granted to worship God according to his Conscience and yet is not satisfied but continues troublesom makes every body ready to be his Executioner and makes that discovery which could never have been made before that Faction was his end and Conscience but the pretended means such men will not only lie open to the States just severity but to the hatred of all men who do generally dislike ill actions most when they come from men of the best pretensions Punish men for their Religion because you judge them Factious and mix all together and you fall into this double Error Either you punish men for Faction that deserve it not and so besides a piece of Injustice do what you can to make those Enemies who are not nor would not be so or else those that are so you give them the pretence of Conscience to justifie themselves in whatever sufferings comes upon them When people differing from the publick Religion meet to worship God and are seized and punished for so doing the Magistrate saith He punisheth for Faction they say They suffer for Religion And all People who see the actual punishment inflicted for things relating to Conscience and Religion will be sure to believe and pitty them and be ready to condemn the State A due Separation as 't is best to be made so 't will only by a Liberty given be obtained He that intends nothing but to give God the Homage of his Conscience will have freedom to do it and he that under that has other ends and aims will be justly punished for it But for a State to imbibe a general belief that all who differ from the State-Religion are factious to the civil Power and not to be suffered and so to punish them as such and if they be not so to tempt them thereby to be so is to do an act of injustice to them and to forfeit their own prudence towards themselves For the Errors you may suppose men possessed withal as an eager Persecution is apt to make the Professors of them think them more than ordinary Truths and themselves some great men in maintaining them so it makes others seek after that when driven into a Corner which were it in the open Streets no man would regard He that preaches and writes under restraint that restraint begets him readers and hearers that would else pass through the World with very little notice taken of him things difficult and hard to come by carry some weight in mens expectancy Foolish and absurd Opinions are only put to Nurse by Persecution and by that made to have something in the concerns and fears of others which has indeed nothing in it self The hiding men by a keen pursuit after them in the profession of such things keeps them alive whereas if they were openly preached written and discoursed of the folly of them would appear such as not only others but the men themselves would be ashamed and a weary of them Besides punishing men for Religion where there are several parties lays a Foundation of endless troubles and perpetual feuds for that ill Opinion and anger which makes one party when prevaling to suppress and punish the rest propagates still the same anger and dislike in the parties punished and begets by such provocation a certain resolution to retort the same again and a readiness to embrace all opportunities to effect it whereas that party that once gives liberty to the rest buries all those Evils and unites all in the common union of their own interest and security 'T will be impossible to find out a way for men of differing Judgments in Religion to live together and enjoy the common advantages which as men they may afford one to another unless they exercise an Indulgence to each other in that variety they stand in as Christians Where there are many differences and a State denyes any Liberty but strictly imposeth the State-Religion upon all the case always falls out to be that the earnest desire of that we call Liberty of Conscience lies glowing in the Embers of mens discontent and is a thing in it self so popular a thing of so great evidence of Reason when it may be discoursed upon equal terms and so much the concern of every man but the present Imposer that 't is very apt to kindle and flame out and upon any strait or emergency of State either by Forreign War or Domestick Division to make such an Earthquake as may endanger the whole 'T is most prudent in a State to give Liberty when there is least power to demand it those may be gained by giving it that may prove dangerous in forcing it To force and pen men up in such things is wholly unnatural and will like Wind penned up in the Earth or the Sea shut up by Banks break out at one time or another with the greater violence Liberty in Religion was never yet denyed in a Protestant State but it had first or last a mischievous effect To instruct men in Protestant Principles and then to put a Yoke of Vniformity upon them hath no more proportion in it than to educate a man at Geneva that is to live at Rome and to breed him a Calvinist whom you intend for a Papist Were there no other reason to make a Prince or a State out of love with punishing men for Religion and matters of that nature this were sufficient to consider such punishment ever falls upon the most honest of his Subjects in every differing party men of loose jugling principles and unsound hearts will be sure to escape the Net only the sincere plain-hearted man that cannot dissemble is caught 't was the device against Daniel heretofore they knew in the matters of his God 't was easie to deal with him because in those he would not upon any terms dissemble This has Three ill Effects always attending it First It disobliges the best sort of men in every party whom the State should most cherish and engage whatever is said to the contrary those that are the truest Subjects to the Great King will be also found the best to his Vice-gerents here 'T is a strange Heterodox kind of policy to make all the honest sincere men in a Nation of every party but that one the State adheres to the object of the States displeasure and to make Laws that can
have no other effect but their Suffering Secondly All standers-by the generality of a Nation looking on must needs be dissatisfied to see a plain honest man upright and punctual in all his dealings amongst men punished meerly for his Conscience to God and because he will not comply to save himself which nothing but his Conscience can lead him to and by parting with which he may at any time purchase his quiet in such a case common Ingenuity begets pity for him if not Proselites to him and great dislike of the course taken with him Thirdly Though it be a secret yet 't is a very sure and certain way of bringing National Judgments upon a People no doubt God takes great notice of the punishing men meerly because they are true to him for so every man is that is true to his Conscience though it be erroneous Upon no other account was it that Paul justified himself before the High-Priest in saying He had walked before God in all good Conscience to that time His meaning was He had gone according to his light as a thing pleasing to God though otherwise as to the matter his Conscience was erroneous and his Judgment mis-informed And he tells us afterwards That he obtained Mercy from God because what he did against the Church was done Ignorantly and in pursuance of the best Light he then had The punishing men meerly for following the pure dictates of Conscience is no doubt the true cause of many National miseries And a State should be careful to avoid this as they would preserve their own safety welfare If we look into that which naturally occasioneth several Opinions in Religion 't is that which a Prince should for his own Interest highly encourage and that is Knowledge for no doubt as Knowledge encreaseth it expatiates it self into variety of Thoughts and Principles and as it enlargeth all other Sciences so Religion Knowledge is the Glory of a Nation and that by which all matters of concern to it as War Trade Policy and every thing else is highly enlarged 'T is the high Honour of a Prince to govern a Wise and a Knowing People as well as a Great People 'T is an impotent piece of Policy and equally destructive to all publick Interest to say Subjects must be kept ignorant as to say They must be kept poor They are Maximes only fitted for a Tyrant and such who only govern for themselves and calculate all Interests at they concenter in their own and by so doing make themselves their own Idols Nothing damps all Noble Undertakings amongst men of Conscience like Imposition in Religion it makes them hang down their Heads it makes them heartless in their Callings If they are denied freedom in Religion men of Conscience will care little for any thing else Solomon tells us A wounded Spirit no man can bear He that carries a taint of trouble in his mind about these things is impotent in every thing 't is Liberty in Religion that breeds the noble and generous minds Let a man know his duty to God and have freedom to perform it and that man will have Wisdom Courage above any man Imposing Religion upon men has never other effect than either to lull men asleep into implicit ignorance and so make them as sottish and useless Members of a State as they are of the Church or else where it meets with Knowledge and Integrity sinks men under the greatest grief and provokes them to the greatest dissatisfaction If we look amongst our selves who be they that desire favour in this particular And who be they that will be gratified and engaged by it but every where men of Religious Principles And are they not generally the sober and serious men that bring good to a Nation Are not they in all Callings and Trades generally most industrious and thriving Are not they most saving in their Expences and every way either in War or Peace most useful and serviceable 'T is debauched loose expensive people that over-live their Estates and neglect their Callings that help to pull a State down such men will be sure to Conform to any thing that secures them in present Luxury 'T is the Sober Serious Religious sort of men that every way make a Nation prosperous to discontent such and to put them into one common Dungeon of imputed Faction and actual Persecution will never be found any right measure of a true National Interest Several things with great Evidence seem to plead for Moderation and Indulgence here in England First The Number and Quantity of those concerned as well as the Quality is such that it can be no way prudent to discontent them upon that which will no way compensate the inconvenience there can be no good Policy to leave so many men mixed every where even in the highest places of the Nation under dissatisfaction without the least effect but the reproach of imprudence in doing it and to put a disgraceful distinguishing Character upon them as men unfaithful to the State only because they cannot comply with some Ceremonies as the case is general amongst us and worship God just in the publick way a thing of no more intrinsick concern to the State than to have all men of the same Opinion in a disputed point of Philosophy and a thing of as equal likelihood to be attain'd A Subject that gives the same Testimony of his Fidelity to his Prince that others do and behaves himself in all civil Concerns as a faithful and profitable Member of the Common-wealth and yet is looked upon as a publick enemy and made the object of publick anger because he cannot in every Circumstance comply with the publick Religion is without doubt very severely and impolitically dealt with As every Subject hath an Interest in his natural Prince so hath the Prince in every Subject and should be like the true Mother that would by no means divide the Child To take such a course is to furnish out a party ready for whoever first makes a disturbance nay it s to tempt men so to do by seeing a party so prepared Let Liberty of Conscience be once fitly given and the Root of all mens hopes and pretensions that desire publick mischief is pulled up and the King will be the greatest and the most beloved Prince that ever yet sate upon the Throne Secondly We shall never have a flourishing Trade without it 1st Because the pressure in these things falls generally more upon the Trading sort of men than any in the Nation we may see it in the great City and in all Coporations It makes many give over Trading and retire It makes others remove into Holland and other Forreign parts as it did heretofore from Norwich to the irrecoverable prejudice of our Cloathing-Trade upon the like occasion And it certainly prevents all Protestant Strangers to come to live and trade amongst us It puts great Advantages into the hands of the Hollander every way who have not a better
Friend in Europe than Vniformity in England As Liberty of Conscience here is that they fear above any thing so it would insensibly more weaken them than all the Victories we have obtained over them 2dly Men will never trade freely where they do not live and converse freely Where a man is afraid to be watched to a Conventicle and most of the time he serves God is fain to hide himself no man will chuse to live so if he can avoid it Every man that cannot conform to the publick Religion lying under the lash of the Law will prudently shun both Business and Company will never lay out his Estate where 't is in any mans power to do him a mischief A man conscious to himself that he cannot comply with the Law will avoid medling with any thing and chuse privacy as his best security This we have had a sufficient demonstration of in the Papists who for many years ever since they lay under the lash of the penal Laws have been of little use to the Nation have retreated from all publick Commerce amongst us kept their Money by them sent their Children abroad and disjoyned themselves from all the publick concerns of the Kingdom 3dly 'T is the King of England's true Interest to become Head of all the Protestant party in the World and he will never do that but by first making himself a common Father to all his Protestant Subjects at home That 't is his Interest to head the Protestant party abroad is plain because being the greatest and most powerful of all Protestant Princes and States he will necessarily draw them into a dependance upon him and desire of Protection from him by which not only the Protestant Interest in it self will be much secured by being so united and conjoyned but the King of England also will receive a great Accession of Power by the Influence he will have on so great a part of Christendom which he may make use of not only to secure the Protestant Religion against the common Enemy of it but to advantage himself every way by the great respect and interest he will have in all Protestant States To bring the Protestants into an Union amongst themselves will be of advantage to every Protestant-State but to none so much as England First Because England naturally becomes the Head of such a Union And secondly Because the Designs and Practices of the Popish party ever since the Reformation have lain and will lie more united against England than any Protestant-State as supposing that the chief Support of all the rest and therefore England can never be truly safe nor secured in its proper Interest but when 't is inviron'd with all Protestant-States adhearing to it and depending upon it How sadly England has miscarried when it has espoused any other collateral Interest but the Protestant has been too obvious ever since the first Reformation England has been always greatest at home when it has been the greatest Defender of the Protestant Faith abroad Now if the King will thus rightly state his Interest abroad he must begin the work at home if he persecute and keep under any of his Protestant Subjects at home those of their Opinion abroad will never put themselves under his protection As he must make no distinction in Christendom but Protestant and Papist so he must make no other amongst his Subjects at home He that imposeth any one Opinion amongst Protestants and will tolerate no other makes the distinction to be still between Protestant and Protestant and makes himself but Head of a Party amongst them and will never so head the Protestant Interest as to oppose the Popish party with it or unite the Protestants so under him as to make them acknowledge him for their Head Whoever would be Head of all the Protestant Interest must have no common Enemy but Popery and concenter all there Imposing Conformity to the Opinion of any one Protestant party upon all the rest is but to make himself so much the weaker by every Dissenter and is indeed totally destructive to the very being of such a thing First Liberty of Conscience is the best way to secure us to the Protestant Faith and to prevent a relapse to Popery the Protestant Religion will be fastest rooted by exerting fully the Principles of it and a throughout adhearing to them By our practice in dealing one with another to deny those Principles by which we justifie our Separation from Rome is the ready way to make them return thither again Teach men that there is no man nor men under any one denomination since the Apostles time that are infallible in delivering Divine Truth Teach men that the Scripture is the only Rule of Religion and let them read it Tell them they are to follow no men farther than they follow that Rule and that every man is Judge according to the best Light he hath of that Rule and how far other men comply with it and differ from it And that every man is bound to behave himself towards God according to the Judgment he shall so make within himself All which are Protestant Principles and Eternal Truths And then collect the sense which these Principles issue themselves into and how unreasonable will it then appear to force men to comply with the belief of others contrary to their own And when you have bid them use their Light and Reason to punish them because they will not oppose it and go against it How can we otherwise justitie forcing men where such Principles are avowed but by a flat denyal of them and recurring to those Popish Weapons of the absolute Power of the Church and her uncontrolable Authority And so by condemning others that upon the exercise of their own Light and Reason now differ from us condemn our selves who upon the same at first departed from Rome When we oppose the Church of Rome we justifie our selves upon the very same Arguments by which Dissenters now amongst our selves make their defence against us And when we dispute against them we take up the same Arguments the Papists use against us There is scarce any considerable Argument urged of late for Conformity and Imposition but if you trace it to the Seat you shall find it in Bellarmine or Suarez The truth is he that cannot indure to have any differ from him in Opinion about the supernatural Truth of the Gospel and will have no toleration of several perswasions of that kind and thinks it destructive to mankind and the being of every State to suffer any so to be That man is a Protestant by mistake and will find himself at home in his Principles no where but at Rome The farther we remove in our Reformation from the Practices and Principles of the Church of Rome and live upon our own the less like we are to return to it If we make use of their Arguments and Principles at one time we may come to use them at another and at last espouse
If we consult the good of such men themselves so lapsed into Error and desire their Conversion Force and Imposition is no way to it If we consult our own Security there is no danger at all can come by it for as long as such Errors lie in the understanding and are only conversant about supernatural things they have no reference at all to the being or well-being of Mankind as such What hurt does an Error in Religion do me in my Neighbour that is otherwise an honest and good man He is rather in that an object of my Pity and Instruction than of my Anger If we desire to have all men of our Opinion because we think we are in the right 't is a very commendable thing and if we do it with such a publick Charity we shall use only such Christian means as naturally conduce to bring it about But if through the Pride of mens Hearts and the Intention of their own Exaltation thereby they will have every body of their Opinion and because they cannot convince and perswade them will therefore force them and trample upon them that 's an Odious Super-intendency To say That upon a prudential Account Liberty should never be allowed in a State because 't is that which will unite Parties and bring them to a Consistency amongst themselves and so render them much more dangerous is to say a thing upon a great Mistake For common Experience shews us That nothing unites Parties more amongst themselves than a hot Persecution For does any thing bring them so much together as that 'T is like a great Storm that drives Cattel that are scattered about altogether and brings them to meet in one common shelter to save themselves Ridly and Hooper agreed in the Goal that would hardly have disputed themselves Friends There is no Bond of Union amongst Disagreeing Persons like PERSECUTION The common Concern of their Security then begets Correspondency Acquaintance and such Intercourse and mutual Assistance as endears them above any thing one to another And for the Danger there may be of any Party there is nothing sure so like to remove that as indulging them with a Liberty The best way to be secured against the discontent of any Party is to remove the Cause of such Discontent and the best way to be out of fear of them unless you can totally destroy them is to oblige them and so at once to engage and win them over and thereby disband our own Fears A late Author tells us with particular Remark That Maecenus heretofore gave advice to Augustus That upon no terms he should endure such who would bring in any strange Worship into the State I believe it and 't was such kind of Advice no doubt that caused the Ten first Persecutions Methinks the Author should have remembred That that advice would have kept Christianity out of the World For if we follow the Track of such Policy we shall find that what we now say against Tolerating Dissenters amongst our selves the Papists first said and do still say against us all and if we go one step higher the Heathens said the very same against the Christian Religion it self and thought it a Factious Fanatick Project of sick-brain'd men and a thing not to be endured that men should not content themselves with the same Godds that the rest of World worshipped and acquiesced in 'T is a sad thing and much to be lamented that the Protestants should take up the Dregs of those Politicks and make use of them one against another upon very small difference amongst themselves The same Author in another part of his Book propounds this Question If divers ways of Worship saith he be allowed in a Nation what shall a Prince do If he keep any men of any Profession or Party out of Employment for their Opinion sake he disobliges that Party If he bring all men indifferently alike into Employment if he be of any Party himself he will disoblige his own Party who will expect Pre-eminence in that kind and so in Conclusion by endeavouring to please all he will lose all This is a Knot very easily untied I will suppose a Prince strict in the Profession and Practice of what he thinks is the Truth and the more strict Personally he is the greater will the favour of Indulgence appear to those that differ from him But there is no necessity that he should make a Party of those who are of his Opinion distinct from the rest of his Subjects 'T is below his Greatness and besides his Interest so to do they will soon become like the Sons of Zerviah and in time grow to be too hard for him Those that are of his Opinion he may think them in his private judgment better Christians than others but there is no Policy so to distinguish them as if they were thereby better Subjects than others All men in a State are to give one Common Assurance of their Fidelity and such who are allowed a Liberty in their Religion when differing from the publick Profession the Political end of it is to make them good Subjects and the end of that must needs be to make them serviceable to their Prince And there is no Reason to doubt but that they will be so and eminently so because they lie under an Obligation to his Favour those of his own Opinion are not capable of A Prince should seat himself in his Throne with an equal Political Aspect to all his Subjects and employ them as their fitness for his Service qualifies them There is no Reason to narrow and limit a Prince to any Party or to let any Party grow into such a Praedominant Opinion as if the Prince were confin'd to them No mans bare Opinion in such things should qualifie him for an Employment nor no mans Opinion ought to put a Negative upon him in that kind that is for a Prince after he has obliged all his Subjects to him to lose the use of a great part of them Let a Prince but chuse men to serve him whose Ability and Fitness carries the evidence of his Choice and other Exceptions will soon vanish 'T is below the Greatness of a Prince to have any Subject to pretend to Imployment upon any score but his Judgment of his fitness for it The King of France hath often with good success employed his Protestant Subjects Nay has often trusted the Command of his whole Army in the hand of the Protestant and yet feared not the disobliging of the Popish Party or being thought a man of no Religion for so doing 'T is a most Absurd and Impolitick thing because men differ in some divine supernatural things to put them under such Characters as to make them unuseful one to another in all other humane things Let a Prince once give Liberty of Conscience and he obliges all Parties to him and makes them wholly depend upon him the Tenor of their Liberty will be a Tenor in Capite and Quam diu
se bene gesserint and for employing men and dispensing favours to them let all Parties with a due subjection lie under the Prerogative and Soveraignty of his pleasure Two things are with much earnestness usually Objected against the Grant of Liberty First That it is unbecoming the Zeal and Concern a Magistrate should have for the Truth of Religion to give Liberty to any thing but what he thinks to be so and that such a Lukewarmness as Liberty to several Opinions supposeth does no way become him Secondly That giving Liberty to men of several Opinions is the way to Propagate and Encrease them and is of great danger to a State For the First It is very fit that the Magistrate should espouse what he thinks to be the Truth and keep himself to the strict Practice of it and use all lawful means to possess others with it let him use all the means Christ and the Apostles used to convince and convert men but let him not lay Violent hands upon mens Persons because he cannot satisfie their Understandings That 's Zeal without Knowledge and Religion without a Rule either in Reason or Divinity That is to run into so wide an Extream from Laodecean Lukewarmness as to become like Paul before his Conversion who saith of himself That he was Mad Persecuting the Church To say A Magistrate is Lukewarm in Religion because he will not Force men to his Opinion is to say He is Lukewarm because he will not do a thing that Christ hath no where required of him and to do a thing that is to no purpose to do for that very end for which it is done Tolerating men has no more in it than not Forcing men 'T is only a Negative Favour there is nothing Affirmative in it A Magistrate will never be charged with Lukewarmness in Religion that makes use of all Gospel means to promote Truth and that he may do and yet never violate the due Liberty of any mans Conscience If we consult the Antient Practice of the first Christian Magistrates we shall find it plain That Liberty of Conscience was given by the Christian Emperors Constantine did it fully Eusebius in his Life time tells us That he made a Decree in these words Vt parem cum Fidelibus ij qui errant pacis quietis fruitionem gaudentes accipiant 'T is true he banished Arrius but let any man consult the Ecclesiastical History and he shall find Arrius so Factious and Base a Person that there needed no part of his Opinion to be the cause of his Exile Gratian the Emperor made likewise a Decree for Liberty in Religion The Jews had granted by all the Emperors the same Rights with other Christians Jovinian and Valentinian most Noble Princes suffered Christians of several Perswasions to enjoy their Liberty Of this Grotius in his Book De Imp. Sum. Potes Circ Sac. Cap. 8. takes particular notice adding these words and saith which is more to be Noted The Emperor did not only permit Jmpunity to Disagreeing Sects but often made Laws to order their Assemblies Liberty therefore in Religion is not either so new or so strange a thing or so great a Monster as men would make it State-Religions are not always Infallibly true Truth sometimes keeps men from embracing them it doth so in many parts of Christendom and in that case a Negative Restraint upon the Magistrates compulsion is the only shelter of Truth The Wisdom of Christ who hath forbid the use of the Temporal power under the Gospel about Religion hath left things best For if a Magistrate be in the right he may promote Truth as far as in the nature of the thing and by Christ's appointment it can be promoted If he be not in the right where the Temporal Power does not interpose men are secured in the profession of Truth and not hazarded in refusing a publick Error He that would have the Magistrate force all men to his Religion will himself be burnt by his own Principles when he comes into a Country where the State-Religion differs from him To say He is in the right and the State that does it in the wrong is a miserable begging the Question If one Magistrate be to do it all are to do it and there can be no other Rule of Truth and Error in that case but what they think so If a Magistrate be once admitted to punish with Death what is really and truly in it self an Heresie he may and must by the same Rule so punish every thing he thinks so Where shall the Definition of Heresie terminate And who shall set the Magistrate bounds in such a case Mis-information Passion or some sinister Interest can only lead men into such Principles which tend to nothing but to make Religion disturb the peace and quiet of all Mankind and as one saith well To bring Christians to a Butchery one of another and to make a meer Shambles of Christendom For the Second Objection That giving Liberty to several Parties Encreaseth them and makes them dangerous to a State First 'T is very fit that wheresoever you will suppose Errors to be sprung up all the means Christ hath appointed for that end should be used to suppress them and reclaim men from them Let their Mouthes be stopped with sound Doctrine and spiritual Censures the only Question is about the use of the temporal Power in such things And Experience tells us That since the World began to this day Principles and Opinions in the Mind were never extinguished by the punishing the Body That old Saying verifies it Sanguis Martyrum Semem Ecclesiae Nay there is nothing under the Sun to promote an Opinion in Religion like making men suffer for it The Constancy and Courage of men in suffering for an Opinion will sooner perswade men to it than all the Discourses and Sermons in the World If the Magistrate take a Violent course to root out all different Opinions in Religion such as the Emperors heretofore when Heathen took with the Christians and the Popish States where they are able do at this day with the Protestants besides the Cruelty of it with which he will besmear himself he will miss of his end and find a Succession of those Principles in others rising out of the Ashes of those Destroys as it used to be said heretofore by the Martyrs Quoties morimur toties nascimur If he take a mild and more gentle way of Persecution he only exasperates them and then leaves them arm'd with all possible Discontent to hurt him Consider the giving Liberty under these two Heads First The giving of it to several Opinions and Parties where they are already actually existing And Secondly The giving Liberty so as will occasion and produce such Parties and Opinions For the First Where there are several Parties in Religion already in being and diffused all over a Nation as the case is with us there is no way to secure them but to indulge them for they are
by their Number outgrown the Political part of Persecution For the Second Consideration of Liberty the giving it so as will naturally produce several Principles and Opinions in men he that would prevent that must give no Liberty to the Protestant Religion must not let the Bible be read by the Vulgar There is no way to keep out several Opinions in Religion but an implicit ignorant Subjection to an imposed Infallibility and to do as the Turks do who will not have any Learning or Discourse amongst them of Religion for that very Reason because they will have no Religion but Mahomet nor no Learning but the Alcoran Such Policy to Murder mens Souls is hatcht in Hell The Art of Printing was at the first thought dangerous because it was looked on as a thing like to introduce several Opinions in Religion Cardinal Woolsey in a Letter of his to the Pope hath this Passage about it That his Holiness could not be ignorant what divers Effects the New Invention of Printing had produced for as it had brought in and restored Books and Learning so together it hath been the occasion of these Sects and Schisms which daily appear in the World but chiefly in Germany where men begin now to call in question the present Faith and Tenents of the Church and to examine how far Religion is departed from its Primitive Institution And that which particularly was most to be lamented they had exhorted the Lay and Ordinary men to read the Scriptures and to Pray in their Vulgar Tongue That if this were suffered besides all other dangers the common People at last might come to believe that there was not so much use of the Clergy for if men were perswaded once they could make their own way to God and that Prayers in their native and ordinary Language might pierce Heaven as well as in Latin How much would the Authority of the Mass fall How Prejudicial might this prove unto all our Ecclesiastical Orders Lord Herberts History of Hen. 8. Liberty of Conscience lies as naturally necessary to a Protestant State as Imposition to a Popish State he must be a good Artist that can find a right middle way between these two 'T is the Glory of Protestant-States to have much of the Knowledge of God amongst them and that variety of mens Opinions about some less weighty and more obscure matters of Religion as it much tends to a discovery of the Truth of them so it no way breaks the Bond of Protestant Union where men generally agree in the same Rule of Religion and in all the chief and necessary Fundamentals of Salvation Liberty of Conscience in such States as it is their true and genuine Interest and without which they will but deny themselves those advantages they might otherwise arrive at so with the forementioned Boundaries can never prove hurtful or dangerous there being always a just distinction to be made between those who desire only to serve God and such who pretend that to become injurious to men And thus we have seen that not only Religion but Reason not only Duty but Interest do invocate Princes and States in this particular To whom it may fitly be said in the words of the Psalmist Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye Judges of the Earth FINIS De Christiana Libertate Or the Mischief of Impositions amongst the People called Quakers Made Manifest Shewing The Inconsistency betwixt the Church Discipline Order and Government erected by G. Fox and those of Party with him and that in the Primitive Times Being Historically treated on WITH A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians And is the First Part of Naked Truth By FRANCIS BUGG GAL. 6.12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcised c. GAL. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not again intangled in the Yoak of Bondage GAL. 5.2 Touch not taste not handle not c. London Printed for the Author 1682. An EPISTLE Dedicated to the Noble BEREANS Of this Age. HAving by the Book prefixed laid before the Magistrates and others concerned a clear Demonstration and many weighty Arguments for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a peaceable Life under the Government I am now come to treat on the Religious Differences amongst us the People called Quakers and therein to vindicate the Christian-Quakers who retain their Primitive Principles and defend their Plea for Liberty of Conscience from the Calumny and Reproach which the Innovators have put upon both it and the Pleaders thereof as if the Tendency thereof was to introduce Loosness Ranterism or the like sort of Abominations all which we detest and deny And in the Introduction to the Accus c. they have Sentenced William Rogers to be no Quaker by which they mean no Christian for if I may be in their account a true Christian and yet no Quaker then what damage is it to be no Quaker So that as the Baptists and others about the Year 72. by their Dialogues and otherwise rendred us no Christians because our Creed lay not litterally in their 8th Article of Faith So doth the Apostate and Innovator endeavour to Unchristian the true Christian-Quaker And the two principal Reasons that can be alledged against us are First our Nonsubmission and Nonconformity to the New Order of the Women Erected by G. Fox and Confirmed by a London Yearly-Meeting And Secondly That their way of compelling and Antichristian way of Proceeding to bring to and force a Uniformity is by us slighted and contemned and published in Justification of our Plea for the Liberty of the exercise of our Conscience in Matters Spiritual I say these two are the grand Reasons for which they render us no Quakers as I said consequently in their Esteem no Christians Whereupon we the Caluminated Abettors of the Cause of Truth can do no less than call to you the BEREANS of our Age not to believe every wandring Book that is put forth against us but read and examine the Matter and before you pass Judgment see what we can say for our selves in Defence of our Christian-Plea for Liberty of Conscience and for which Reason I choose to Dedicate the Ensuing Tract in the first Place to you expecting your Impartial Examination c. For as William Penn very well says in his Epistle to you the Noble and Examining BEREANS who usually hear both Sides in the Front of the Book Entituled the Christian-Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated c. So we find it Experimentally viz. The Insatiable Thirst of men after Religious or Civil Empire hath filled almost every Age with Contest There is something in Man that prompts to Religion and such as stand not in the TRADITIONS of Men nor any meer Formality But Man that he may not loose the Honour of a Share with an unwarrantable Activity so Adulterates by
an Intermixture of his own Conceptions with their Divine Dictates and purer Discoveries SO Sophisticates that at the last they become more his own Workmanship than the Truth 's And so fond is he of this Child of his Brain that like some Antient Tyrants he will rather cut his way to the Throne by a violence upon all others Consciences than not put a Crown upon Its HEAD And how far these Tyrannical Proceedings have been used by our New Spiritual Lords may in part be seen by this following Discourse which to you the Searching BEREANS I choose first to Dedicate the same who am a real Lover of your Example and a Member of your Society Francis Bugg The PREFACE To The READER THe Main Thing intended by this Discourse is to shew the Mischief of Impositions on Tender Consciences in Matters Spiritual that so the same being discovered may be laid aside as a Burthen some Thing and for time to come avoided and Christian-Liberty instead thereof introduced to all peaceable Subjects in every Nation That this hath been the principal End of all Sound Protestant Writers as well as of the Author of the First Part of this Treatise Whose Name I know not nor in what Form of Religion nor amongst what Society of People he walked but yet his Judgment upon this Subject is my Judgment I can produce many Authors as well from Antient and Modern History as Sacred Writ wherefore to attempt the same is no new thing But as it hath been the Work of the Protestants to shew that the Pope may Err nay hath often Erred c. So is it may Business at this time to shew that G. Fox may Err and which compared with W. Rogers his Book doth plainly shew that he hath often Erred c. And as the antient Protestants Work hath been to shew that Councels may Err and that Synodical Assemblies may Err nay have often Erred So it is my Concern at this time to shew that our Yearly-Meeting and other Synodical Assemblies and that the Second-days Meeting may Err nay have often Erred And now I will shew you a Parellel betwixt the Treatment which the Protestants met withal from the Hands of the Papists for their pains and betwixt the Treatment that W. R. T. C. and others have met withal from the Hands of G. F. and those of Party with him for their pains and I expect no better Reward For I know they will be very angry yea dreadful angry to see their Rood of Grace or Graceless as well as Lifeless Image brought forth to the Peoples View in its Proper Dress in all its Imperfect Parts and deformed Shapes as I have done shewing the several sorts of Mettals it is made up with and the ill composed Ingredients therewith Tempered to make it stand and when all is done it is so Lame of it's Feet and se benummed to the Toes End that it must and will fall as soon as ever Implicit Faith and Blind-Obedience the Papists Old Crutches do but take away their Hands from it c. First In Order to a Discovery of the Papists Tindal Frith Barns and other Protestants wrote many Books under several Titles but the Papists caused them to be suppressed calling them Pernitious and Damnable Herisies and Burned Richard Bayfield and Imprisoned Thomas Green for dispersing the Books wrote by Luther Zuinglius Frith and others 2dly In Order to make a Discovery of G. Fox and his Party W. R. T. C. and others have wrote several Books but G. Fox and his Party have caused them to be Suppressed so far as their Power reach't advising and cautioning Friends not to read them which is a doing otherwise than they would be dealt by See W. P's Epistle to the Bereans in the Front of the Christian-Quaker and his Divine Test c. Nay they have Excommunicated J. B. for spreading some of them c. 3dly Again the Papists hold that the Church of Rome can never Err And next that the Pope whatsoever he doth may never be called in question These two Points being granted the rest are sure Next the Pope is exempted from all Laws of Man Again no man may Accuse the Pope for his Acts are excused as Sampsons Murthers the Jews Robberies and as the Advoutures of Jacobs Sons whereupon St. Bernard said the Bishops were not Doctors but Deceivers not Feeders but Defrauders not Prelates but Pilates And this is called the Castle of their Church See The Defence of the Apology of the Church of England pag. 563. and 494. quest 9. Cunct 3. c. Again What is done and agreed upon at a Quarterly Yearly or Second-days Meeting is Infallible and being once upon Record is Irrevocable because it was done by them not as Persons in their single Capacitie or as Men But as a Body and as a Church nay the Church of Christ And again Whatsoever G. Fox doth may never be called in question Nay it is impossible to Interdict him or lay an Impeachment against him so as to have a hearing by a Meeting rightly Constituted as may be seen by the 4th and 5th Parts of the Christian-Quaker c. So that the Exemption of G. Fox from the Stroak of Justice is manifest Again No man may accuse G. Fox let his Crime be what it will for if he doth let him look for it he shall suffer the greatest Penalty that G. Fox and his Party that Privy-Council are capable to inflict upon him as may be seen in this following Parellel which I shall transcribe at large betwixt the Papists Cursing Thomas Bennet for writing Papers and cleaving them upon their Church Doors wherein he called the Pope Antichrist and the Invectives against William Rogers and others for writing Books and dispersing the same and reading and and owning the same wherein G. F. is Detected whereby it is manifest not only that his Crimes be excused c. but by reason thereof many of our Preachers grow Deceivers instead of Doctors Defrauders instead of Feeders c. See the Christian-Quaker Distinguished c. In Five Parts and the Seventh Part c. And Babels-Builders Unmasking themselves the 1st 2d 3d. and 4th Parts c. Now for the Compleating this Parellel read the Papists Curse against good Thomas Bennet who afterwards was Burnt c. for setting up Papers which called the Pope Antitichrist c. Even with Bell Book and Candle as I find it in Fox's Monuments in the Eighth Book of the continued History of the Blessed Martyrs c. pag. 311. 312. in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth c. The Manner of the Papists Cursing Thomas Bennet for Publishing and Manifesting their Errour before he was Burnt for the same THe Manner Saith the Historian of the Cursing the said Bennet was marvellous to behold Then said the Prelate By the Authority of God the Father Almighty and of the Blessed Virgin Virgin Mary St. Peter and Paul and of the Holy Saints we Excommunicate we utterly Curse
before the Mens and Womens-Meetings being distinct and apart each from the other according to the Platform of G. F. c. Secondly That the Rife Practice Setting up and Establishishing of the Womens-Meetings is according to the Mind and Câ—â—nsel of God and done in the Leading and Ordering of his ETERNAL-SPIRIT whereby G. F. his Erection of this as new as needless Ceremony is ratified and confirmed and absolutely corroborated and strengthened by these Presents according to their true Intent and meaning No Pope ever had a more true and loyal Council or one better skil'd or more politick to save his Holiness from any Danger or confirm his Infallible and Unerring Institutions nay further they have granted I think to him his Heirs and Successors for ever for I see no limit in the whole Ecclesiastical Cannon that whosoever directly or indirectly discountenance these Womens-Meetings cannot be look't upon as in Unity with the Church of Christ and then to be sure no Members which if I believed it would be sad News for me Thirdly And lest any should yet chance to call the Proceedings of these New Spiritual Lords in Question or call their Meeting Synodical or the Members thereof like Popes Bishops c. their Epistle Decrees Cannons or Edicts of Men c. it is Ordained by the Authority aforesaid that such are not to be permitted i. e. to be at Unity with them for alas that is all they can yet do Viz. Reckon us as Heathens and I look upon it better to be under that censure than after all private meanes used and they not reclaimed to let them go undiscovered Fourthly But lest all this should not do here is one stratagem more and that is To Record those disobedient Sons to all Eternity for it is further Enacted by this New arbitrary Authority who did without the consent of the People perhaps forgetting that we are English-men that the Testimony of the Church shall be recorded and the Condemnation of the Transgressors of these Ordinances and infallible Laws to which indispensible Obedience is required which is partly and plainly and very truly so interpreted if their Intents may be measured by what hath followed as the event of these Things which this Treatise will yet further manifest So that upon the whole matter I cannot see what could have hindred the compleating this Grant and Confirmation had they but put these four Branches to the remaining eight for there are in all 12 Particulars and obtained their passing both Houses of Parliament and the Royal Assent the neglect whereof hath been greatly disadvantagious to their carrying on their then notable Designs CHAP III. Treats of the Proceedings of George Fox and his Party in the Executive Part of the Order Grant and Confirmation mentioned in the Second Chapter their Proceedings against John Ansloe an Opposition made thereto by several Viz. HAving in the two former Chapters manifested the Way Manner and Method of our Church-Government first as it was in our primitive Gathering when as we pleaded to the Magistrate for Liberty of Conscience so we had the free Exercise of it allowed amongst our selves in Matters Spiritual And Secondly with reference to latter Years when Liberty of Conscience is only pleaded for to the Magistrate but utterly denyed to be put in practise amongst our selves which I hope may serve for a Proof to the Author of the Accuser c. and a convincing one too that W. R. when he published his Book Entituled The Christian-Quaker Distinguished from the Apostate and Innovator In Five Parts Was not without ground when he cryed out of Forms Impositions Orders Prescriptions Rules Cannons c. But that it may yet more plainly appear I shall now descend to the Proceedings in our own Country which I am an Eye-Witness of where these Laws Rules Cannons and Directories have been put in practice on the greatest Penalties we are capable to inflict and then perhaps the Author of the Accuser may accept of my Endeavours both for a Proof and Catalogue of the unparrelled severity according to the State and Capacity we stand in to the Members of our own Society considering how liable we are to the Persecution of so many penal Statutes every day yea I say I know not where to find a Parrellel for our Proceedings our State and Capacity rightly considered we that differ from others and desire their Forbearance yet at the same time differing among our selves cannot nay will not bear one with another we cry to the Magistrates for the Liberty and the free Exercise of our Consciences in Matters Spiritual and will not nay resolves not come what will come to allow the free Exercise of Conscience in matters Spiritual to our discenting Brethren as this Treatise will make manifest Oh! depth of Hypocrisy and Fore-runner of Tyranny Should you have Power put into your Hands before the Peoples Eyes are a little opened to see your Treachery your double dealing your antichristian dealing You are like the deaf Adder you will not hear How often have I wrote unto you How have I wooed and intreated you to race out one Cannon To condiscend a little Which I had great hopes of when I saw W. P's Addr. to Prot. But alas he hath told us by his Liberty Spiritual p. 13. his meaning Viz. Nor is it the least Evil this Spirit of strife is guilty of even at this day that it useth the words Liberty of Conscience and Imposition against the Brethren in the same manner as our Suffering Friends have been always accustomed to intend them against the Persecuting Priests and Powers of the Earth Whereby it is manifest that it is accounted a great Evil if not the least to call for Liberty of Conscience since they are accustomed to intend it only to the Magistrates for themselves and not by that Expression to any that shall call for it to them Well I am loth to trouble my Reader with my single Coment upon these things but shall come more close to the matter even to what is upon Record and Proceedings thereupon and then leave it to the Conscience of the Impartial Reader First then see a Copy of the Orders Recorded in our Quarterly-Meeting Book in the Isle of Ely which is as followeth Viz. IT is ordered and agreed upon at this Quarterly-Meeting that no Friends for time to come may Permit or suffer Marriages without the consent of Friends at two Mens and Womens-Meetings and the Man and Woman to come both to the said Meeting to receive the answer of Friends that so no disorderly or indirect Proceedings may be carried on any more contrary to the Unity of Friends Dated the 1st of the 10 Month 1675. This Cannon or Directory being usher'd in amongst us under the specious Pretence of Good Orders and to keep things clean It was by our Meeting generally received and by me recorded I being Writer at that time but many of us little thought that it was intended for a Rule and
answered the Lord and was conformable to the Leadings of his holy Spirit therein as his Conscience doth bear him witness to his dayly comfort but could not fulfill in every Circumstance the Wills and Edicts of Men therefore the aforesaid S.C. and others passed their Sentence against him and Recorded him out of the Unity in their Quarterly Book for no other Cause nor Crime Now it is before me to speak something in answer to this Question for the Simples sake who are easily led aside by the cunning Craftiness of Men and taking all for Truth that their Leaders say and it hath been the Leaders of the People in Ages past that caused them to Err drawing them from the Annointing within to Observations without to expect the Kingdom there being an easie way and more pleasing to the Flesh is most taking drawing after them the greatest Number I speak of them that profess the Truth I say What is Conformity Answ Conformity is a MONSTER conceived by the great Whore MYSTERY BABYLON the Mother of Harlots A MONSTER because of its Deformity and Degenerate Birth it can be no other for the Devil is the Father of it I speak of a forced Conformity upon Mens Consciences Christ Jesus never gave any such Command nor left any such Example saying If the Son make you Free then are you Free indeed Neither did he Conform to the Jewish Commands which was often laid to his Charge as Breaking of the Sabbath and the like and they upon better grounds than any since that Day because they were the Commands of the Lord by his Servant MOSES and they saw no further neither did they believe in Christ but we say We believe in his Name and he only is our Lord Lawgiver and the Sheepherd of his Sheep and they hear his Voice and the Voice of a Stranger they will not follow These Sayings are professed by us all but I find but a few in the practise of them I might mention the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles and a Cloud of Witness both before and since that they neither did command nor compel Conformity in Matters of Conscience relating to Church-Discipline but I shall upon this occasion and at this time rather mention the Truth which we received in the Beginning c. The breaking forth of it was very glorious after so long a Night of Darkness Oh how acceptable was it to my Soul with many more It can never be forgotten How contrary was Compulsion and Driving into Conformity to it Even as Light is contrary to Darkness Oh how did Love and Unity abound amongst us that received the Truth in the Love of it Every one sitting under his own Vine and drinking of the Fountain of Life which the Lord hath opened in us and walking in that Liberty wherewith Christ had set us free Not a word of Conformity or Church-Discipline for many Years and then we loved one another even as Christ had loved us freely for his Names sake and went hand in hand together Serving the Lord and one another and the least Breathing that was after God in any c. How glad were we to see the Faces one of another And how did our Harmony sound in all our Meetings before Conformity was brought in amongst us and cryed up as the only Mark of Christianity Without it neither Hand nor Eye unless with a Frown nor lying nor selling where its Power reacheth This CONFORMITY hath been the cause of Divisions and Persecution in Ages past first Enforce then Persecute and much Innocent Blood hath been shed by it It had its beginning in the Apostacy and is most cryed up in the thichest Darkness beginning at the Pope to the meanest Profession but I did once think it could never have crept in amongst us at least so soon being so many faithful Testimonies against it both in Word and Writing still fresh in our remembrance But the Enemy of the soul of Mankind is buisie NOW as in Ages past with his subtle Devices to beguile the Souls of the Simple transforming himself into an Angel of Light and putting upon him the finest Dress in the purest Profession that the Sons of Men can make mention of to draw away the Heart from the Lord from waiting upon him for the purest Stream of Life and Love into the dirty Puddle of Conformity finding it the easiest way of Entrance having many specious Pretences and fine Coverings Oh! my Heart is grieved for it and I am often bowed down before my God because of these Things and I am not alone but there is a little Remnant with me whose Names are written in the Book of Life and whose Garments are washed in the Blood of the Lamb and wears the Seamless Coat that is woven from the top to the bottom And these things lay upon me to clear my Consoience I could not keep silence any longer that I might be clear of the Blood of all Men having not long to be on the Stage of this World I might lay down my Head in Peace as many of my Brethren have done before me who finished their Course with the same Testimony J. A. The 3d. of the 2d Month 1679. CHAP IIII. Richard Hubberthorn his Reasons against Impositions Francis Howgil his Discovery of Innovations George Fox's Old Doctrine and New Practice A Huntingtonshire Certificate Observation on G. F. his Antient Doctrine Having in great measure by these three foregoing Chapters cleared three Points under consideration By the First Shewing that as we desired Liberty of Conscience from the Magistrates so we allowed it amongst our selves to each other By the Second G. F. his Grant or Order or the Womens Charter granted by G. F. for their Rule and Government in their distinct Meetings and the Grant and Confirmation thereof by the Yearly-Meeting Anno 75. Whereby Liberty of Conscience is wholly excluded and a Degeneracy and an Apostacy from our antient Testimony manifested By the Third a Proof of Persecution as far as our Power reaches in the Case of J. A. whereby the Fruit of such Synods is manifest I am now come to shew how the antient Testimony of Friends and the Writings of many moderate Professors and Bishops and Blessed Martyrs which stand as Witnesses against the Proceedings of G. F. and those of Party with him mentioned in the two last Chapters Richard Hubborthorn renders seven Reasons why no Impositions ought to be upon any Mans Conscience by any but the Lord alone to have the Government thereof Two of which I shall only transcribe for brevities sake See his Works p. 188. First Because no Man can perswade the Conscience of another either what God is or how to worship him but only the Spirit which God hath given to instruct Man Secondly Because to Impose any thing upon another Mans Conscience either to Do or Practise is not To do unto another as he would have another do unto him And therefore is contrary to Christs Doctrine These two
hopes that things might yet be amended c. But you will not hear you will not have any regard to the distracting Contentions and dividing Contests we have in the Country about your New Orders so that a necessity is upon me to undeceive the World and such as have their Eye too much to you for notwithstanding things are as I have laid them down and you will not condiscend a hairs breadth yet the Author to the Accuser hath the face to tell the World in p. 127. And having these things in our Eye we can the more easily concur and accord as to Circumstances and Outward Methods and in the Wisdom of God so condiscend one to another and accomodate Matters as not to divide about them and therefore we do seriously profess we see no real Cause or valid Reason our Opposer meaning W. R. shews for the great noise and rumble he makes about Outward Laws Prescriptions Edicts Innovations Impositions c. For my part I marvel that the Author of the Accuser which is said to be G. Whitehead should have the confidence thus to appear in Print when his own Conscience tells him the contrary nay it is not a year since himself was at our Quarterly-Meeting where the said Orders mentioned in the Third Chapter are Recorded as a Rule and prescribed Platform under the Notion of Orders when one Robert Smith of Coline in Huntingtonshire came to publish his Intention of Marriage with Ann Oliver in the Isle of Ely and because he would not go into the Womens Meeting and perform the Ceremony in Manner and Form he was not taken notice of as others are that do conform nor yet admitted to have his Wife and the grand Opposer was G. VV. Albeit the Man brought a Certificate with him from their own Meeting which although it be a Digression from my present Matter yet I shall recite it that so it may the more evidently appear how far G. W. was from Accomodation or Condiscention which he in the Accuser fallaciously pretends to the World in order to deceive them to cover their Deceit and Hypocrisy and Arbitrary Church-Government Dominion and Lordship c. To the Quarterly-Meeting in the Isle of Ely These are to certifie all concerned that Robert Smith of Colne in this County meaning the County of Huntington Widdower hath at several Meetings published his Intentions of taking to Wife Ann Oliver of Aldred in the Isle of of Ely but grieved some Friends perhaps Richard Jobson and Tobias Hard-meat G. Fox's two principal Studs in that Country by rejecting their Counsel and refusing to acquaint the Women Friends therewith according to the good and wholsom Practice of Friends in the Truth But however we whose Names are Subscribed know nothing but that he is clear from all other Women Jasper Robins Edward Neel Wil. Whitehead James Parris Thomas Bundy Richard Taylor Thomas Bagly Natha Cawthorn Nathanael Neele But to return to make some Observation upon the antient Doctrine of G. Fox to the Professors which the Professors may justly turn upon him and say Come G. Fox and thy Adherents hear what we can say for we remember thou didst not only tell us That our Rule was without us our Touchstone without us our Guide without us and that in the Traditions of Men which lead from God but in the Year 1669 thou told us in thy Epistle to the Presbyterians and Independants and their rough Hearers in a Book wrote by G. W. Entituled The Divinity of Christ c. That we must not Shuffle for thou wert resolved that the Scripture should buffet us about As if thou hadst been resolved to throw the Bible at our Heads adding That we should be WHIPPED about with our Rule For thou wert resolved to have plain Scripture yea nothing less than plain Scripture would serve thy turn as if thou hadst loved the Scripture very well and valued it far above thy own Prescriptions which we now perceive was but meer Mockery since no Scripture is recorded in the Isle of Ely's great Book of Records as a Rule but instead thereof a large Epistle or Church-Directory of thy own writing and now we must whip thee a little with thy Rule of Ceremonies and Needless Traditions with which many of your peaceable People the Christian-Quakers have been long vexed and burthened and do begin to throw off thy Yoke and to come out with true Testimonies against thee and thy Adherents and in order to buffet thee soundly we now ask thee for plain Scripture and resolve to have it too or else reckon thee a very Hypocrite and will prove thee so too as amply as the Christian-Quakers have proved thee an Innovator we say shew us plain Scriptuer for your Womens-Meetings to be set up Monthly about the 10th Hour of the Day apart and distinct from the Men to get a little Stock by them And when so Assembled What Scripture have you to compel all that intend Marriage amongst you to go and present the Publication of their Intention before them at two several Meetings come do not shuffle with us for we are resolved to have plain Scripture for these your Proceedings or else we shall conclude thou hast found Austins Knap-Sack and stollen out one of the Ceremonies that he used to bring the Rome since we never heard of any Proof for these your Womens Jurisdiction save only by thy Learned Friend R. Richardson who in his ill compos'd Ingredients p. 11. said In like manner there remains in their Nunneries some Imperfect Footsteps of Womens Services c. And again What Scripture have you for Recording out of the Vnity such as will not Conform to these your Innovations since thou hast told us about fourteen Years ago in thy Book Entituled gospel-Gospel-Liberty and the Royal Law of Love p. 23. saying And therefore to bring People to that which is not of Faith is to bring them into Sin and to make them make Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience c. Come Is it not so still Why then do you allow in your felves the Thing you condemn in others Why do you Build again the Things you have destroyed or thinkest thou thy self execusable Oh Man Come Give us Chapter and Verse for your Womens-Meeting distinct from the Men to be constantly set up unless a little cold Weather intervene Montly about the tenth Hour to get a little Stock we suppose thou meanest a little Mony for certain Select and Holy Uses it being a more private way than the Bason and Platter which our Nonconforming Ministers it seems by thy Discourse were glad to receive their Mony in publickly but the Matter is the less in regard we never pretended to preach for nothing c. And as for us we grant we are for an Outward Rule but it is the Scripture of Christ his Apostles and Prophets which was wrote for our Example and Learning but you deny the Scriptures of Christ and his Apostles to be a Rule and yet
Demonstration that Force and Imposition on Consciences is an Antichristian Practice and that an undisturbed Liberty of the Exercise of Conscience in Matters Spiritual is every Christians just Priviledge and Right where People live peaceably under the Outward Government which is one main thing intended by this Discourse as well as to discover that Hypocritical and two-fac'd Practice Viz. Of pleading to the Magistrate for Liberty of Conscience and at the same time are using and exercising all Force Rule Dominion and Authority they are capable to inflict upon their Discenting Brethren who cannot fall down and cry Hosannah to every Likeness lest the Accepting and Conforming to one needless Ceremony should be ground of Incouragement to the Ruling Party to Introduce another and so a numberless number until at length Rome may if possible be out done c. Zanchy in his Epi. to Q. Eliz. L. 1. C. 241 Non propter Vestes totum Corpus Ecclesiae Perdere Not to destroy the Body of the Church for Garments sake not to disturb the Peace of the Church by urging Indifferent Things Col. 245. c. VVilliam Tindall in his Answer to Sir Thomas Moor p. 258. of his Works thus saith But they which maliciously maintain Opinions against the Scripture or such as make no Matter unto the Scripture and Salvation that is in Christ whether they be true or no and for the Blind-Zeal of them make Sects breaking the Unity of Christs Church for whose sake they ought to suffer all things and rise against their Neighbour whom they ought to love as themselves Such Men I say are fallen from Christ and make an Idol of their Opinion Now this is a plain Conclusion that both they that trust in their own Works and they also that put Confidence in their own Opinions be fallen from Christ and Err from the way of Faith And saith he p. 174. Some Men will say The Pope hindeth them not they bind themselves I answer He that bindeth himself to the Pope and had rather have his Life and Soul Ruled by the Popes Will than by the Will of God and by the Popes Word than by the Word of God is a Fool and he that had rather be bound than free is not wise and he that will not abide in the Freedom wherein Christ hath set us is also mad And the reason that G. W's Learned Friend R. R. in his Post-script to the Babylonish-Opposer p. 15. He would seem to insinuate that this William Tindal yields the Women such Authority as may countenance the Proceedings of Womens-Meetings amongst us as Set up by G. F. and those of Party with him Viz. Once a Month about the tenth Hour distinct and apart from the Men to whose Assembly when so convened all that intend Marriage must go before them and present their intentions and stay a compleat Month and then go both of them before the said Womens-Meetings met as aforesaid to ask their Licence as in the Second and Third Chapters are at large set forth And if any will not so submit to their Authority and conform to their Jurisdiction then to Record them out of the Vnity c. I say lest his Insinuations should have such an Influence upon any of his credulous Readers and thereby be deluded I have traced him and in the Reading of William Tindals Works I have found him out and shall for the right Information of the Reader relate his Judgment in his own Words p. 252. Women be no meet Vessels to Rule or to Preach for both are forbidden them yet hath God indued them with his Spirit at sundry times Do not our Women Christen and Administer the Sacrament of Baptism in time of need might they not by as good Reason Preach also if necessity required if a Woman was driven into some Island where Christ was never Preached might she not there Preach Him if she had the Gift thereto Notwithstanding though God be under no Law and necessity Lawless yet be we under a Law and ought to preferr the Men before the Women and Age before Youth as nigh as we can for it is against the Law of Nature that Young-Men should Rule and as uncomly that Women should Rule the Men. And Pag. 313. Tells us what was the Service of Women in these words To be a Servant unto the poor People to dress their Meat wash their Cloaths to make their Beds and so forth and to wash Strangers Feet that come out of one Congregation unto another about Business and to do all manner of Service of Love unto their poor Brethren and Sisters c. I think I need not comment upon the difference in all respects betwixt what this worthy Man intended as by his words are manifest betwixt the Womens Services in those times and the usurped Authority and unlimited Power and Rule that G. F. and others have placed in the Womens-Meetings as that none must be permitted or suffered to Marry except they Conform c. So that the Quotation of R. R. this Learned Champion is as impertinent to his intended Purpose as the Quotations of G. F. in his little withdrawn and for Reasons enough Entituled A Book of Incouragement to all Womens-Meetings c. Which by W. R. is very fully answered in his Christian-Quaker Distinguished c. So that I need not further paraphrase thereupon but return to what was before me to wit to shew Testimonies against Imposing Conformity to the Traditions of Men c. Object But perhaps some may say There is being but a few of you in comparison of the Multitude that will not Conform for they can out Vote you three to one so that we are apt to think God will not suffer so many to Err or any more a Vniversal Apostacy Answ I will answer this Objection in the words of William Tindal because this notable Champion R. R. who for his Learning is admired by his Reverend Friend G. W. hath him in some Estimation c. See his Work p. 268. where he saith The Turks being in number five times more than we acknowledge One God and believe many things of God moved Only by the Authority of their Elders And the presuming that God will not let such a multitude Err so long time and yet they have Erred and been faithless these 800 years and the Jews believe this Day as much as ever the Carnal sort of them ever believed Moved also by the Authority of their Elders ONLY and think it is impossible for them to Err being Abrahams Seed and being the Children of them to whom the Promises of all that we believe was made and yet they have Erred and been faithless this 1500 years and we of like Blindness believe ONLY by the Authority of our Elders And of like Pride think that we cannot Err being such a multitude and yet we see how God in the Old-Testament did let the great multitude Err reserving always a little Flock to call the other back again and to
testifie unto them the RIGHT-WAY Hear what Luther says about Opinions Vol. 2. Lib. 7. Fox Acts and Monuments p. 63. Let Opinions remain Opinions so they be not Yokes to the Christians let us not make Mens Opinions equal with the Articles of Faith and to the Decrees of Christ and Paul See the Epitome of Dr. Robert Barns p. 363. Augustine saith Because that those Men by such Observations were led from the Verity by the which they were made free whereof it is spoken The Verity shall deliver you It is a Shame saith he and unconvenient and far from the Nobleness of your Liberty seeing you be the Body of Christ to be deceived with Shaddows and to be Judged as Sinners If you despise to observe these Things Wherefore let no man overcome you seeing you are the Body of Christ that will SEEM to be meek in Heart in the HOLINESS of Angels and bring in Things which he hath not seen Also in his Works p. 298. Entituled Mens Constitutions which are not grounded on Scripture bind not the Conscience Hear him Mark That all Traditions of men which are against or not according to Gods Law must be destroyed Therefore let every man take heed for it belongeth to their Charge for both the Blind Guides and also they which be led shall fall in the Ditch It shall be no excuse for him that is led to say That his Guide was blind but let them hear the Word of God by his holy Prophets Walk not in the Precepts of your Fathers nor keep their Judgment but walk in MY Precepts and keep MY Judgements The other manner of Statutes be when certain Things that be called Indifferent be commanded as Things to be done of necessity As for Example To eat Flesh or Fish this or that day is indifferent and free c. These with all other Outward Works be Things indifferent and may be used and also left Now if the Bishops or Ministers will make Laws or Statutes That these Things shall be determinately used so that it shall not be lawful for us to leave it undone But that we must precisely do them and not the contrary under the pain of Deadly Sin here they must be withstood and in no wise obeyed for in this is hurt our Faith and Liberty in Christ whereby we are Free and not bound to any exterior Work but Free in all Things and unto all Men at all times and in all manners except it be in such a Case whereas Brotherly Charity or the Common Peace should be offended therefore in all these Cases we be free and we must withstand them that will take THIS LIBERTY from us with this Text of Scripture We are Bought with the Price of Christs Blood we will not be the Servants of Men. This Text is open against them that will bind Mens Consciences unto Sin for what is not of Faith is Sin in those things that Christ hath left them free in Brentious upon the 1st of Cor. Chap. 3. No man hath Power to make or give Laws to Christians whereby to bind their Consciences for willingly freely and uncompelled with a ready Desire and chearful Mind must they that come run unto Christ Dr. Taylor in a Discourse of Liberty of Prophesying p. 9. of the Christian-Plea Spir. Mar. I earnestly contend that another Mans Opinion shall be no Rule to mine and that my Opinion shall be no Snare and Prejudice to my self that men use one another so charitably that no Errour or violence tempt Men to Hypocrisy this very thing being one of the Arguments I used to perswade Permissions lest Compulsion introduce Hypocrisy and make Sincerity troublesome See his 16th Section Viz. For it may be safe in diversities of Perswasion and it is also a part of Christian Religion that the LIBERTY of Mens CONSCIENCES should be preserved in all Things where God hath not set a Limit That the same Meekness and Charity should be preserved in the Promotion of Christianity that gave it Foundation and Increasement and Formness in its first Publication And that Persons should not more certainly be Condemned than their Opinions confuted And also see a little of the Judgment of Bishop Taylors Cases of Conscience p. 301. Ecclesiastical Laws saith he must be imposed SO as to leave our Liberty unharmed Pag. 310. Laws of Burthen are always against Charity And Pag. 314. Ceremonies obliege no longer than they minister to the End of Charity Hear also what Bishop Hooper saith Scitis quod res Sancta vera quo magis examinatur per Verbum Dei Explicatur eo fit illustrior purior quanto purior illustrior tanto magis ab omnibus desideratur obviis Ulnis excipitur Nam quod variis modis tentatur ac probatur modo pium ac sanctum fuerit jacturam ab Hostibus nullam sentit sed potius Hostes conculcat ac interficit Nec est quod vobis ipsis metuatis modo re ipsa id prestetis quod ubique jactatis Nam quotquot vestras Partes non sequuntur aliquo gravissimo ignominiae genere nimis Superbe afficitis aequa justa petimus ut palam ac publice lites inter nos componantur nullis enim Legibus Sanctis Justis unquam fuit permissum ut una pars litigans de altera parte Judex constitueretur nos tantum Legem Evangelium Dei in Causa Religionis Judicem Competentem agnoscimus illius Judicio stet vel cadat nostra Causa Which for the Sakes of some is thus Translated Know ye that by how much the more the Thing which is holy and true is examined and by the Word of God expounded by so much 't is become more clear and pure and by how much the more 't is made pure and clear by so much the more 't is by all desired and embraced For that which is tryed and proved after various manners if it hath been pious and holy suffers no loss by the Enemy but rather suppresseth and destroyeth the Enemy neither is there any Cause why you may fear so that you perform in very deed that which you every where boast of For as many as do not take your Parts you too proudly afflict with some grievous kind of Infamy What we desire is both equal and just that these Contentions may openly and publickly be composed For it was never permitted by any holy and just Laws that one Party contending should be constituted a Judge concerning the other Party We do acknowledge that the Word of God is the only competent Judge in the Cause of Religion let our Cause stand or fall to the Judgement thereof CHAP. VII Shews that my self and others in this Country have used private Means about four Years and that no Accomodation or Condiscention was attainable neither Answer to Letter Answer to Query nor when I went to London with a Letter from Friends of our particular Meeting to the Second days Meeting in London and delivered it with my
to discover it if he perceives such things entring the Church Answ That both the Reading of the Scriptures and the care of Religion belongs not to the Pasture of the Church ONLY But that every one that would be Saved ought to make deligent Search whether any Corruption be already or is for the Future like to be Introduced and this to be done no less carefully I hope I shall perform this Duty than if he was perswaded that all besides himself were asleep Now forasmuch as the Profit will be small If some private Man shall observe that an Errour is Introduced unless he discovers the said Errour and lays it open Address to Prot. p. 163. Read pages 93. 94. 95. 144. 146. 141. 142. c. Query IX Whether the Barbadoes Order upon Record which is To give up our whole Concern if required both Spiritual and Temporal to the Judgement of the Spirit of God in the Mens and Womens-Meetings See Babels-Builders p. 5. And the Isle of Elyes Orders upon Record in our Quarterly Book which says Thath for time to come no Friends may permit or suffer Marriages without the consent of Friends at two Mens and two Womens-Meetings being distinct and apart each from other Be not Innovations and the Setters of them up and confirming them Innovators and do they not do violence to our First Principles of Union Answ Yea Whosoever brings in or Sets up other Precepts Constitutions Orders and Practices in Point of Worship and would set up other Traditions than the Apostle delivered either by Word or Writing such are manifest to have the Spirit of Errour and are Innovators See Francis Howgil's Works p. 236. And that he begun to see the Evil Effects of Councils See his Works p. 534. where he quotes Dr. Paraeus Gregorius Theologus and Gregorius Nazianzenus c. Who complained of the Lordliness of the Ministers and Bishops and that seldom any Good came of Councils as he there at large sets forth c. George Fox See if thou hast not as much Need of a Battledoore as the Scholars and Professors had Who art as much Apostatized from they former Principles for Liberty of Conscience as the Scholars and Professors were from the single Language viz. Thee and Thou to a single Person And therefore to bring People to that which is not of Faith is to bring them into SIN to make Shipwrack of Faith and a Good Conscience Gosp Lib. p. 23. wrote 1668. by G. F. And in his several Papers given forth for detecting Deciet 't is thus said The Worlds Guide is without them in the Traditions and Precepts of men which lead from God p. 5. c. But now Conform to Hadenham Orders or Record him out of the Unity c. As at large in Cap. 3. These Orders were made the 1st of the 10th Month 1675. This I set here not to Adore Because I do well understand He that gave forth the Battledore Now brings Grapes of another Land Which Sower be because not free From Force and Impositions Although as yet he will not see Them like Old Romes Traditions These Queries or the Substance of them I sent to G. Whitehead but never received any Answer from him only there came an obscure Letter to my hands from R. R. but who it was or where he dwelt he did not acquaint me and whether the said Letter may be accounted any thing of an Answer or whether he doth not rather manifest the obscure Author to be a Man full of Contempt Scorn and Disdain and Abuse in that he calls and accounts me Conceited Befooled my Ignorance blinded Lyes perverse Lyer and yet doth not particular one Instance to prove me to be such an one c. I shall leave with the Impartial Reader to weigh and consider when he hath read the said Letter and my Answer to it a Coppy of both hereafter follow Francis Bugg I Know thy Name and Nature though not thy Person A mean Sight may discern it through thy own Spectacles plainly enough to be Abusive Vnworthy and Foolish though conceited in this Matter at present I could be glad to know 't were otherwise now so would others If not I believe G. W. will send thy Papers to the Quarterly Meeting who I believe will see and disown thy Abuse both of this Meeting at London particular Friends and themselves and especially the Truth wherein they are concerned and wherein they Labour and Travel though therein thou abusively comparest them to the Abuses of Bishops Orders Constitutions Decrees Cannons Cheating and other Terms I cannot now remember nor thou understand else thou wouldst write them in truer English and better sense This I mention to meet with and abate thy Concietedness to help thee with Spectacles to see how unfit thou art to undertake to be a Judge of Learning in that kind as well as to be a Judge of such Friends in Truth and such Meetings of Friends in an incomparably higher in imperiously and menacingly requiring them to advise and consent to the altering the Quarterly Meeting Book in your Parts as if thou hadst both this and that Meeting at thy Devotion either to bend to thy hand at thy pleasure or else to undo by thy Publication The Bishoprick thou speakest of and the Promotion aspired to by the Bryar and Thistle in Lebanon which can but prick and rake the Skin cannot destroy as it would that within and that Nature thou art in can but blister it for a time and must in the end be crushed So turn from it in time and signifie it to those thou hast wornged is my Advice to thee they Lyes and Revilings are not worth Answering to be like thee they are so gross vain Thy Queries differ in the Principle from which they proceed and the End to which they tend from the thou makest thy Answer from Friends and that which is defective in two Principal Causes is far from Good which is from intire Cause Conceit hath so blinded thee thou canst neither see Beginning nor End If I did not see thy perverse willful gross Lyes I should answer to thy Ignorance But thus much at present is meet thou shouldst know how it hath befooled thee From him that hath learned so much from the Truth though by thee despised and belyed R. R. For Francis Bugg The Queries are before and the Letters wrote by me and other Friends which I suppose he takes the Imperiousness and Menacing from shall follow after the Answer I sent him for which he accounts me so foolish befooled blinded my Ignorance not wrote in true English c. To which I refer the Reader First then my Answer I sent him Viz. F. Bugg his Answer to R. R's Letter R. R. I Have received a few Lines from thee bearing no Date nor yet acquainting me who thou art otherwise than by R. R. nor yet where thou dwellest by which I perceive thou lovest Obscurity If these Lines of mine chance to find thee out
R. that it was the Advice of such an Eminent Friend as it was of Party with G. F. Viz. Let not this Spirit be reasoned with enter not into Proposals and Articles with it but feed it with Judgment that is Gods Decree Which gives me occasion to write to you at this time to DESIRE then not to require as R. R. says a Letter from you whether you will Advise and Consent to the Racing out the said Orders which prohibit Marriage to the manner of the Publication of the Parties Intention and whether you will advise and consent to the Racing out the Record against J.A. for his Nonconformity to the said ORDERS or else maintain and prove them Apostolical and agreeable to the Way and Manner of the Apostles and Primitive Christians Proceedings by answering my Queries sent to G. W. c. But if you refuse to do either That is to say To race out the said Orders for Marriage on Record and the Record against J. A. or else maintain and prove them Apostolical Then I do hereby let you know that I purpose if the Lord will to bear a publick Testimony against your Innovations Usurpations Directories Orders Decrees Cannons and Constitutions But on the contrary mark my Terms of Submission If you shall race out the said Orders and Record against J. A. or shew mark I pray you your Advice and Consent by Letter to me to the Friends belonging to our Quarterly-Meeting to and for the racing out the said Orders for Marriage and Record against J.A. for his Nonconformity to them so that it be done effectually OR mark the reasonableness of my Proposals prove them Apostolical by answering my Queries sent to G. W. or otherwise as aforesaid Then I do hereby promise to forbear such publick Testimony whether by Printing or otherwise and to wait in hopes that Things which are amiss may be mended And why you refuse this Request which would tend to the gladning the Hearts of many I know not Christ said to the lofty Professors in his Day If you Believe me not yet Believe me for my Works Sake And I say though you may slight me yet for the Reason sake that I offer for Liberty of Conscience as an Expedient for Reconciliation and for the Peace of the Church and that Liberty of Conscience in the Free Exercise of it where neither Christ nor his Apostles have set a Limit may be enjoyed and preserved from Violence and Usurpation Have some Regard to what I say It is not unknown to you how our Practice hath been sometimes to the King and his Council sometimes to the King and Parliament for Liberty of Conscience and the Free Exercise of it and that we might be exempted from the Penalties assigned for our Nonconformity to the Rites and Ceremonys of Prelatical Institutions Established by the Laws of the Land This hath been still is and ought to be our Practice WELL THEN How comes it then 〈…〉 pass that we should be such humble Suiters for Liberty of Conscience and now such severe Imposers on each others Consciences and to such Orders as G. W's Learned Friend R. R. in his Perplext Vnlearned and Ill-compos'd Ingredients p. 11. 12. had no better way to vindicate than by two Proofs The one from the Popes Nunnery a Place I do not like at all and I pray God preserve me in that Faith and Practice which may be defended by the Holy Scriptures and Primitive Christians Example that so I need not be put to that Shift and Extremity as to go to the Popes Nunnery to defend the same but as W. P. elsewhere saith though to his own Confutation in that he handed the Grant and Confirmation mentioned in the Second Chapter Errour is only upheld by Errour and so he may see in time The next Proof of his is That in the Jews Apostacy to Idolatry the Women wove Hangings And that as the First Implyes some Womens Service amongst the Primitive Christians So the last shews that Women did some Service in the Temple Oh profound Learning And if this way of Reasoning was pursued What Heathenish Practices and Popish Superstitions may not be Introduced But says he These are * * Note Imperfect Footsteps Imperfect Footsteps And I think as Impertinently Quoted and if R.R. hath no better Logick he need not be admired by G. W. in Print for his great Learning nor perhaps had not only he hath found out some History or Popish Author which says There were Deaconesses as well as Deacons Which was helpful to G.W. in his Preaching and Disputing for Womens-Meetings lately in Huntington-Shire and elsewhere where he took too much upon him and behaved himself more like a Lordly Bishop or Popish Prelate than an humble Minister of Christ and by me at this time is and stands Impeached as an Enemy to christian-Christian-Liberty a Vsurper over the Conscience the which I stand ready publickly to assert maintain and vindicate And as you have in your Solicitations for Liberty of Conscience shewed our King at the latter End of the Treatise of Oaths the Example of the Grave of Nassau and the Prince of Orange and divers others who in their time gave Liberty so may I and with great reason too set the Example of our King before your view who though he hath not granted all you ask yet hath done much more comparatively than you will do for your Brethren and that in a twofold manner that is to say First In that about eight or nine Years since by his Letters Pattent was graciously pleased to Release many of us out of Prison who lay under the Sentence of Premunire Secondly By racing out the Exchequer Records where many of us stood convict of Recusancy and thereby out of his Princely Clemency set us free from the Censures issuable thereupon These Things are manifest Why then will you not bear with a little Nonconformity to one Ceremony and that such an one too for which there is neither Precept nor President in all the Holy Scriptures Why will you not learn of the King who raced out and made void the Judges Sentences which were severe enough and blotted out the Exchequer Records that so you may thereby give us some ground to believe that if you were in Power to Inflict Corporal Punishment for our Non-conformity to your Church-Government YOU WOULD NOT c. Oh that you would consider these Things in a Christian Spirit which would lead you To do to others as you would that others should do unto you So desiring your speedy Answer I rest your Friend who cannot sow Pillows under your Arm-holes Milden-hall The 12th of the 9th Month 1681. F. Bugg Thus it is left with the Reader to Judge what Imperiousnes is herein manifested considering my former Endeavours and Patience therein for nigh four Years The next is a Letter sent by a dozen Friends that belong to our particular Meeting And then after some Remarks upon their Procedure I shall conclude this