peremptory soever some of them have been in asserting the Rights of their Supreme Power in Civil Affairs they have been forced to seem modest and diffident in the exercise of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy and dare scarce own their Legislative Power in Religious Affairs only to comply with the saucy pretences of ungovernable and Tumultuary Zeal One notorious Instance whereof in our own Nation is the Iejunium Cecilianum the Wednesday Fast that was injoin'd with this clause of Exception That if any person should affirm it to be imposed with an Intention to bind the Conscience he should be punished like the spreaders of false News Which is plainly to them that understand it as a late Learned Prelate of our own observes a direct Artifice to evacuate the whole Law for as he excellently argues all Humane Power being derived from God and bound upon our Consciences by his Power not by Man he that says it shall not bind the Conscience says it shall be no Law it shall have no Authority from God and then it has none at all and if it be not tied upon the Conscience then to break it is no Sin and then to keep it is no Duty So that a Law without such an intention is a Contradiction it is a Law which binds only if we please and we may obey when we have a mind to it and to so much we are tied before the Constitution But then if by such a Declaration it was meant That to keep such Fasting-days was no part of a direct Commandment from God that is God had not required them by himself immediately and so it was abstracting from that Law no Duty Evangelical it had been below the wisdom of the Contrivers of it for no man pretends it no man says it no man thinks it and they might as well have declar'd That the Law was none of the Ten Commandments The matter indeed of this Law was not of any great moment but the Declaration annexed to it proved of a fatal and mischievous consequence for when once the unruly Consciences of the Puritans were got loose from the restraints of Authority nothing could give check to their giddy and furious Zeal but they soon broke out into the most impudent Affronts and Indignities against the Laws and ran themselves into all manner of disloyal Outrages against the State As is notoriously evident in the Writings and Practices of Cartwright Goodman Whittingham Gilby Whitehead Travers and other leading Rabbies of the Holy Faction whose Treatises are stuffed with as railing spightful and malicious Speeches both against their Prince the Clergy the Lords of the Council the Judges the Magistrates and the Laws as were ever publickly vented by the worst of Traytors in any Society in the world And as for the method of their Polity it was plainly no more than this first to reproach the Church with infamous and Abusive Dialogues and then to Libel the State with bitter and Scurrilous Pamphlets to possess mens minds with dislikes and jealousies about Publick Affairs whisper about reproachful and slanderous Reports inveigle the people with a thousand little and malicious Stories enter into secret Leagues and Confederacies foment Discontents and Seditions and in every streight and exigence of State threaten and beleaguer Authority In fine the scope of all their Sermons and Discourses was to perswade their Party that if Princes refuse to reform Religion 't is lawful for the People with Direction of their Godly Ministers i. e. themselves to do it and that by violent and forcible courses And whither this Principle in process of time led them the Story is too long too sad and too well known to be here repeated 't is sufficient that it improved it self into the greatest Villanies concluded in the blackest Tragedy that was ever acted upon this Island § 22. Well then to sum up the result of this Discourse 't is evident we see both from Reason and Experience what a powerful influence Religion has upon the peace and quiet of Kingdoms that nothing so effectually secures the publick Peace or so easily works its disturbance and ruine as it s well or ill Administration and therefore that there is an absolute necessity that there be some Supreme Power in every Common-wealth to take care of its due Conduct and Settlement that this must be the Civil Magistrate whose Office it is to secure the publick Peace which because he cannot sufficiently provide for unless he have the Power and Conduct of Religion its Government must of necessity be seated in him and none else So that those persons who would exempt Conscience and all Religious Matters from the Princes Power must make him either a Tyrant or an impotent Prince for if he take upon him to tye Laws of Religion upon their Consciences then according to their Principles he usurps an unlawful Dominion violates the Fundamental Rights and Priviledges of Mankind and invades the Throne and Authority of God himself But if he confess that he cannot then does he clearly pass away the bigest Security of his Government and lay himself open to all the Plots and Villanies that can put on the Mask of Religion And therefore should any Prince through unhappy miscarriages in the State be brought into such streights and exigences of Affairs as that he cannot restrain the head-strong Inclinations of his Subjects without the hazard of raising such Commotions and Disturbances as perhaps he can never be able to allay and so should be forced in spight of himself to indulge them their Liberty in their Fansies and Perswasions about Religion yet unless he will devest himself of a more material and more necessary part of his Authority than if he should grant away his Power of the Militia or his Prerogative of ratifying all Civil Laws unless I say he will thus hazard his Crown and make himself too weak for Government by renouncing the best part of his Supremacy he must lay an Obligation upon all Persons to whom he grants this their Religious freedom to profess that 't is matter of meer favour and indulgence and that he has as much Power to govern all the publick Affairs of Religion as any other matters that are either conducive or prejudicial to the publick Peace and Quiet of the Common-wealth And if they be brought to this Declaration they will but confess themselves to say no worse Turbulent and Seditious persons by acknowledging That they refuse their Obedience to those Laws which the Supreme Authority has just Power to impose CHAP. II. A more Particular Account of the Nature and Necessity of a Sovereign Power in Affairs of Religion The Contents THE Parallel between matters relating to Religious Worship and the Duties of Morality Moral Vertues the most material Parts of Religion This proved 1. from the Nature of Morality and the Design of Religion 2. By a particular Induction of all the Duties of Mankind A Scheme of Religion reducing all its Branches either to the Vertues or
Instruments of Morality Of the Villany of those mens Religion that are wont to distinguish between Grace and Virtue They exchange the substance of true Goodness for meer Metaphors and Allegories Metaphors the only cause of our present Schism and the only ground of the different Subdivisions among the Schismaticks themselves The Vnaccountableness of Mens Conceits That when the main Ends and Designs of Religion are undoubtedly subject to the Supreme Power they should be so eager to exempt its Means and Circumstances from the same Authority The Civil Magistrate may determine new Instances of Virtue how much more new Circumstances of Worship As he may enjoyn any thing in Morality that contradicts not the ends of Morality so may be in Religious Worship if he oppose not its design He may command any thing in the Worship of God that does not tend to debauch Mens practices or their conceptions of the Deity All the subordinate Duties both of Morality and Religious Worship are equally subject to the Determinations of Humane Authority § 1. HAving in the former Chapter sufficiently made out my first Proposition viz. That 't is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Common-wealth should be vested with a Power to govern the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion I now proceed to the proof of the second thing proposed viz. That those who would deprive the Supreme Civil Power of its Authority in reference to the Conduct of the Worship of God are forced to allow it in other more material parts of Religion though they are both liable to the same Inconveniences and Objections Where I shall have a fair opportunity to state the true extent of the Magistrates Power over Conscience in reference to Divine Worship by shewing it to be the same with his Power over Conscience in matters of Morality and all other Affairs of Religion And here it strikes me with wonder and amazement to consider That men should be so shy of granting the Supreme Magistrate a Power over their Consciences in the Rituals and External Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet be so free of forcing it upon him in the Essential Duties of Morality which are at least as great and material Parts of Religion as pleasing to God and as indispensably necessary to Salvation as any way of Worship in the World The Precepts of the Moral Law are both perfective of our own Natures and conducive to the Happiness of others and the Practice of Vertue consists in living suitably to the Dictates of Reason Nature And this is the substance and main Design of all the Laws of Religion to oblige Mankind to behave themselvs in all their actions as becomes Creatures endued with Reason and Understanding and in ways suitable to Rational Beings to prepare and qualifie themselves for the state of Glory and Immortality And as this is the proper End of all Religion That Mankind might live happily here and happily hereafter so to this end nothing contributes more than the practice of all Moral Vertues which will effectually preserve the Peace and Happiness of Humane Societies and advance the Mind of Man to a nearer approach to the Perfection of the Divine Nature every particular Vertue being therefore such because 't is a Resemblance and Imitation of some of the Divine Attributes So that Moral Vertue having the strongest and most necessary influence upon the End of all Religion viz. Mans Happiness 't is not only its most material and useful Part but the ultimate End of all its other Duties And all true Religion can consist in nothing else but either the Practice of Vertue it self or the use of those Means and Instruments that contribute to it § 2. And this beside the Rational Account of the thing it self appears with an undeniable evidence from the best of Demonstrations i. e. an Induction of all Particulars The whole Duty of Man refers either to his Creator or his Neighbour or himself All that concerns the two last is confessedly of a Moral Nature and all that concerns the first consists either in Praising of God or Praying to him The former is a Branch of the Vertue of Gratitude and is nothing but a thankful and humble temper of mind arising from a sense of Gods Greatness in himself and his Goodness to us so that this part of Devotion issues from the same virtuous quality that is the Principle of all other Resentments and Expressions of Gratitude only those Acts of it that are terminated on God as their Object are styled Religious and therefore Gratitude and Devotion are not divers Things but only different Names of the same Thing Devotion being nothing else but the Virtue of Gratitude towards God The latter viz. Prayer is either put up in our own or other mens behalfs If for others 't is an Act of that Virtue we call Kindness or Charity If for our selves the things we pray for unless they be the Comforts and Enjoyments of this life are some or other virtuous Qualities and therefore the proper and direct use of Prayer is to be instrumental to the Virtues of Morality So that all Duties of Devotion excepting only our returns of Gratitude are not Essential parts of Religion but are only in order to it as they tend to the Practice of Virtue and moral Goodness and their Goodness is derived upon them from the moral Virtues to which they contribute and in the same proportion they are conducive to the ends of Virtue they are to be valued among the Ministeries of Religion All Religion then I mean the Practical Part is either Virtue it self or some of its Instruments and the whole Duty of man consists in being Virtuous and all that is enjoin'd him beside is in order to it And what else do we find enforc'd and recommended in our Saviour's Sermons beside heights of Morality What does St. Paul discourse of to Felix but moral matters Righteousness and Temperance and Iudgment to come And what is it that men set up against Morality but a few figurative Expressions of it self that without it are utterly insignificant 'T is not enough say they to be completely Virtuous unless we have Grace too But when we have set aside all manner of Virtue let them tell me what remains to be call'd Grace and give me any Notion of it distinct from all Morality that consists in the right order and government of our Actions in all our Relations and so comprehends all our Duty and therefore if Grace be not included in it 't is but a Phantasm and an Imaginary thing So that if we strip those Definitions that some men of late have bestowed upon it of Metaphors and Allegories it will plainly signifie nothing but a vertuous temper of mind and all that the Scripture intends by the Graces of the Spirit are only Vertuous Qualities of the Soul that are therefore styled Graces because they were derived purely from Gods
and occasional whereas those of Obedience are of a prime absolute and eternal necessity Princes are Gods Deputies and Lieutenants here on earth he vests them with their power and by his own Law binds us to obey theirs and though their Decrees pass no direct Obligation upon the Consciences of men yet the Divine laws directly and immediately bind their Consciences to obey them and God has annex'd the same Penalties to Disobedience to their Laws as to his own So that obedience to all the lawful Commands of our Superiours is one part of our Duty to God because our obligation to it is tied upon us by his own immediate Command aud therefore if the duty of avoiding scandal that is of Compliance with my neighbours weakness be sufficient to excuse that of Obedience to Authority 't is so too to take off the immediate Obligations of God himself So that when these two the publick commands of a lawful Superiour and the private Offence of an honest Neighbour countermand each other if the latter prevail then may it forbid what God has made a necessary Duty and oblige us to disobey him out of Compliance with the folly and ignorance of men How few are there of the Divine Laws more severe and peremptory than those that command Obedience to Authority And therefore if we may decline this duty only to avoid scandal Why not any Why not all This then is our Duty and must be done and as for all its casual and equivocal events no mans Conscience is concern'd to provide against them And if other men will be offended because I do my Duty that is their fault and not mine and better be the occasion of another mans sin than the Author of mine own No mans folly or ignorance can cancel my obligations to God or God's Vicegerent and in all cases where there is any competition between scandal and a Command of God or any other lawful Authority there is no other difficulty to be resolved than whether I shall disobey God or displease my foolish Neighbour And 't is one would think past all dispute that when any thing is positively determin'd as a matter of Duty the obligations to Obedience in that particular are not for that very reason left to any man's Choice and Prudence as all matters of Scandal are but it must become in all Cases and Circumstances whatsoever a Duty of a precise absolute and indispensable Necessity And certainly God had made but odd provision for the Government of the World if he should allow one Subject for the pleasure of another to derogate from the Authority of lawful Superiours and permit them the liberty to disobey the Commands of Governours rather than displease one another for this must unavoidably end in an utter dissolution of all Government devolve the Supremacy entirely upon every private man that either has or can pretend to have a weak and a tender Conscience For if scandal to weak and tender Consciences be of sufficient force to rescind the obligatory Power of the Commands of Authority then whoever either has or can pretend to a weak Conscience gains thereby an absolute Sovereignty over all his Superiours and vests himself with a power to dispense with or evacuate their Commands So that in the issue of all this pretence puts it in the power of any peevish or malevolent person to cancel all the Decrees of Princes and make his own humour the Rule of all their Polity and Laws of Government and become Superior to his own Superiours only by being ignorant or peevish How is it possible to make Authority more cheap and contemptible if men would study to weaken and disgrace it than by making its Commands of less force than the folly or perverseness of every arrogant Mechanick And what can be more destructive of all manner of Government than to make all the Rules of Order and Discipline less sacred than the whimsies of every phantastick Zealot In brief the peace and quiet of honest men is likely to be mighty well secured when disobedience shall be thought the product of a more exact and tender Conscience When to pick quarrels with the Laws and make scruple of obeying them shall be made the specifick Character of the Godly Party and when giddy and humorous Zeal shall not only excuse but hallow Disobedience when every one that has pride enough to fancy himself a Child of God shall have Licence to despise Authority and do as he list What an irresistible temptation is this to proud and zealous Enthusiasts to affect being troublesome to Government and disobedient to all the Laws of Discipline when it shall pass for the result of a more extraordinary tenderness of Conscience What encouragement could men have to obey their Superiours when to dispute and dislike their Laws shall be thought to proceed from a greater holiness and a more exact integrity And what a resistless inducement is this to all proud and phantastick Zealots to remonstrate to the Wisdom of Authority if thereby they may gain the Renown and Glory of a more conspicuous godliness If men would but consider the natural Consequences of this and the like Pretences they could not but see how fatally and unavoidably they lead to Anarchy and an utter dissolution of all Government Which mischief as is notoriously apparent from the Premisses all the World can never prevent if the scandal of Private men may ever dispence with the Obligation of Publick Laws CHAP. VIII Of the Pretence of a Tender and unsatisfied Conscience the Absurdity of Pleading it in Opposition to the Commands of Publick Authority The Contents THis pretence is but an after-game of Conscience 'T is a certain and unavoidable dissolution of Government 'T is a superannuated Pretence and is become its own Confutation Old Scruples proceed not from Tenderness but Stubborness of Conscience This particularly shewn in their scruple of kneeling at the Communion They affect their Scruples out of Pride and Vain-glory. Tenderness of Conscience is so far from being the reason of Disobedience that it lays upon us the strongest Obligations to Obedience A Tender Conscience is ever of a yielding and pliable temper When 't is otherwise 't is nothing but humour or insolence and is usually hardy enough not to scruple the greatest Villanies The Commands of Publick Authority abrogate all doubts and scruples and determine all irresolution of Conscience The matter of all scruples is too small to weigh against the Sin and Mischief of Disobedience The Apostles Apology viz. We ought to obey God rather than men holds only in matters of great and apparent Duty but not in doubtful and disputable Cases Nothing more easie than to raise scruples No Law can escape them this particularly shewn in our own Laws When two Obligations interfere the greater always cancels the less Hence 't is impossible for any man to be reduced into a necessity of Sinning Obedience to Publick Authority is one of the greatest and most
free Grace and Goodness in that in the first Ages of Christianity he was pleased out of his infinite concern for its Propagation in a miraculous manner to inspire its Converts with all sorts of Vertue Wherefore the Apostle St. Paul when he compiles a complete Catologue of the Fruits of the Spirit reckons up only Moral Vertues Gal. 5. 22. Love Joy or Chearfulness Peaceableness Patience Gentleness Goodness Faithfulness Meekness and Temperance and elsewhere Titus 2. 11. the same Apostle plainly makes the Grace of God to consist in gratitude towards God Temperance towards our selves and Justice towards our Neighbours For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Where the whole Duty of Man is comprehended in living Godlily which is the Vertue of humble Gratitude towards God Soberly which contains the Vertues of Temperance Chastity Modesty and all others that consist in the dominion of Reason over our sensual Appetites Righteously which implies all the Vertues of Justice and Charity as Affability Courtesie Meekness Candour and Ingenuity § 3. So destructive of all true and real Goodness is the very Religion of those Men that are wont to set Grace at odds with Vertue and are so far from making them the same that they make them inconsistent and though a man be exact in all the Duties of Moral Goodness yet if he be a Graceless Person i. e. void of I know not what Imaginary Godliness he is but in a cleaner way to Hell and his Conversion is more hopeless than the vilest and most notorious Sinners and the Morally Righteous Man is at a greater distance from Grace than the Profane and better be lewd and debauch'd than live an honest and vertuous life if you are not of the Godly Party Bona Opera sunt perniciosa ad salutem says Flaccus Illiricus Moral Goodness is the greatest Let to Conversion and the prophanest wretches make better Saints than your Moral Formalists And by this means they have brought into fashion a Godliness without Religion Zeal without Humanity and Grace without good Nature or good Manners have found out in lieu of Moral Virtue a Spiritual Divinity that is made up of nothing else but certain Trains and Schemes of Effeminate Follies and illiterate Enthusiasms and instead of a sober Devotion a more spiritual and intimate way of Communion with God that in truth consists in little else but meeting together in private to prate Phrases make Faces and rail at Carnal Reason i. e. in their sense all sober and sincere use of our Understandings in spiritual Matters whereby they have effectually turn'd all Religion into unaccountable Fansies and Enthusiasms drest it up with pompous and empty Schemes of Speech and so embrace a few gawdy Metaphors and Allegories instead of the substance of true and real Righteousness And herein lies the most material difference between the sober Christians of the Church of England and our modern Sectaries That we express the Precepts and Duties of the Gospel in plain and intelligible Terms whilst they trifle them away by childish Metaphors and Allegories and will not talk of Religion but in barbarous and uncouth Similitudes and what is more the different Subdivisions among the Sects themselves are not so much distinguish'd by any real diversity of Opinions as by variety of Phrases and Forms of Speech that are the peculiar Shibboleths of each Tribe One party affect to lard their Discourses with clownish and slovenly Similitudes another delights to roul in wanton and lascivious Allegories and a third is best pleased with odd unusual unitelligible and sometimes blasphemous Expressions And whoever among them can invent any new Language presently sets up for a man of new Discoveries and he that lights upon the prettiest Nonsense is thought by the ignorant Rabble to unfold new Gospel-Mysteries And thus is the Nation shattered into infinite Factions with sensless and phantastick Phrases and the most fatal miscarriage of them all lies in abusing Scripture-Expressions not only without but in contradiction to their sense So that had we but an Act of Parliament to abridge Preachers the use of fulsom and luscious Metaphors it might perhaps be an effectual Cure of all our present Distempers Let not the Reader smile at the odness of the Proposal For were men obliged to speak Sense as well as Truth all the swelling Mysteries of Fanaticism would immediately sink into flat and empty Nonsense and they would be ashamed of such jejune and ridiculous Stuff as their admired and most profound Notions would appear to be when they want the Varnish of fine Metaphors and glittering Allusions In brief were this a proper place to unravel all their affected Phrases and Forms of Speech which they have learn'd like Parrots to prate by Rote without having any Notion of the Things they signifie it would be no unpleasant Task to demonstrate That by them they either mean nothing at all or some Part or Instrument of Moral Vertue So that all Religion must of necessity be resolv'd into Enthusiasm or Morality The former is meer Imposture and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter and what-ever besides appertains to it must be subservient to the Ends of Vertue such are Prayer Hearing Sermons and all manner of Religious Ordinances that have directly no other place in Religion than as they are instrumental to a vertuous life § 4. 'T is certain then That the Duties of Morality are the most weighty and material concerns of Religion and 't is as certain That the Civil Magistrate has Power to bind Laws concerning them upon the Consciences of Subjects So that every mans Conscience is and must be subject to the Commands of lawful Superiours in the most important matters of Religion And therefore is it not strange that when the main Ends and designs of all Religion are avowedly subject to the Supreme Power that yet men should be so impatient to exempt its means and subordinate Instruments from the same Authority What reason can the Wit of man assign to restrain it from one that will not much more restrain it from both Is not the right practice of Moral Duties as necessary a part of Religion as any outward Form of Worship in the World Are not wrong Notions of the Divine Worship as destructive of the Peace and settlement of Common-wealths as the most vicious and licentious Debaucheries Are not the rude multitude more inclined to disturb Government by Superstition than by Licentiousness And is there not vastly greater danger of the Magistrates erring in matters of Morality than in Forms and Ceremonies of Worship in that those are the main essential and ultimate Duties of Religion whereas these are at highest but their Instruments and can challenge no other place in Religion than as they are subservient to the purposes of Morality Nay is it not still more
unaccountable that the Supreme Magistrate may not be permitted to determine the Circumstances and Appendages of the subordinate Ministeries to Moral Virtue and yet should be allowed in all Common-wealths to determine the particular Acts and Instances of these Virtues themselves For Example Justice is a prime and natural Virtue and yet its particular Cases depend upon humane Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum The Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius's Right and Propriety but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of the Society they live in can determine And there are some Cases that are Acts of Injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all Places must be govern'd by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World Whereas 't is undeniably evident That neither the Law of God nor of Nature determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws They in general forbid Theft Incest Murther and Adultery but what these Crimes are they determine not in all Cases but is in most particulars to be explained by the Civil Constitutions and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons among these Crimes that the Law of God and of Nature forbids And now is it not strangely humoursome to say That Magistrates are instrusted with so great a Power over mens Conscience in these great and weighty Designs of Religion and yet should not be trusted to govern the indifferent or at least less material Circumstances of those things that can pretend to no other Goodness than as they are Means serviceable to Moral Purposes That they should have Power to make that a Particular of the Divine Law that God has not made so and yet not be able to determine the use of an indifferent Circumstance because forsooth God has not determin'd it In a word That they should be fully impowered to declare new Instances of Vertue and Vice and to introduce new Duties in the most important parts of Religion and yet should not have Authority enough to declare the Use and decency of a few Circumstances in its subservient and less material Concerns § 5. The whole State of Affairs is briefly this Man is sent into the World to live happily here and prepare himself for happiness hereafter this is attain'd by the practice of Moral Vertues and Pious Devotions and wherein these mainly consist Almighty Goodness has declared by the Laws of Nature and Revelation but because in both there are changeable Cases and Circumstances of things therefore has God appointed his Trustees and Officials here on Earth to Act and Determine in both according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new Particulars of the Divine Law to declare new Bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither does nor can limit because of necessity they must in a great measure depend upon the Customs and Constitutions of every Common-wealth And in the same manner are the Circumstances and outward Expressions of Divine Worship because they are variable according to the Accidents of Time and Place entrusted with less danger of Errour with the same Authority And what Ceremonies this appoints unless they are apparently repugnant to their Prime end become Religious Rites as what particular Actions it constitutes in any Species of Virtue become new Instances of that Virtue unless they apparently contradict its Nature and Tendency Now the two Primary Designs of all Religion are either to express our honourable Opinion of the Deity or to advance the Interests of Vertue and Moral Goodness so that no Rites or Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the Worship of God unless they tend to debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity And 't is upon one or both of these Accounts that any Rites and Forms of Worship become criminally superstitious and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora and Venus because they were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery and such were the Salvage and Bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal-Peor and all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Antient Paganism because they supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the Miseries and Tortures of its Creatures And such is all Idolatry in that it either gives right Worship to a wrong Object or wrong Worship to a right one or at least represents an infinite Majesty by Images and Resemblances of finite things and so reflects disparagement upon some of the Divine Attributes by fastning dishonourable Weaknesses and Imperfections upon the Divine Nature As for these and the like Rites and Ceremonies of Worship no Humane Power can command them because they are directly contradictory to the Ends of Religion but as for all others that are not so any lawful Authority may as well enjoyn them as it may adopt any Actions whatsoever into the Duties of Morality that are not contrary to the Ends of Morality § 6. But a little farther to illustrate this we may observe That in matters both of Moral Vertue and Divine Worship there are some Rules of Good and Evil that are of an Eternal and Unchangeable Obligation and these can never be prejudiced or altered by any Humane Power because the Reason of their Obligation arises from a necessity and constitution of Nature and therefore must be as Perpetual as that But then there are other Rules of Duty that are alterable according to the various Accidents Changes and Conditions of Humane Life and depend chiefly upon Contracts and Positive Laws of Kingdoms these suffer Variety because their Matter and their Reason does so Thus in the matter of Murther there are some Instances of an unalterable Nature and others that are changeable according to the various Provisions of Positive Laws and Constitutions To take away the life of an innocent Person is forbidden by such an indispensable Law of Nature that no Humane Power can any way directly or indirectly make it become lawful in that no Positive Laws can so alter the Constitution of Nature as to make this Instance of Villany cease to be mischievous to Mankind and therefore 't is Capital in all Nations of the World But then there are other particular Cases of this Crime that depend upon Positive Laws and so by consequence are liable to change according to the different Constitutions of the Common-wealths men live in Thus though in England 't is Murther for an injured Husband to kill an Adulteress taken in the Act of Uncleanness because 't is forbidden by the Laws of this Kingdom yet in Spain and among the old Romans it was not because their Laws permitted it and if the Magistrate himself may punish the Crime with Death he may appoint whom he pleases to be his Executioner And the Case is the same in reference to Divine Worship in which there are some things of
allows and what it allows is not unlawful and what is not unlawful may lawfully be done and therefore it must needs be our Duty to conform to all circumstances of Worship that are determined by lawful Authority if they are not antecedently forbidden by the Law of God though they are not commanded Things that are not determined remain indifferent what is indifferent is lawful and what is lawful the Magistrate may lawfully command and if it be sinful to obey him in these things 't is so to obey him at all for all things are either lawful or unlawful 't is a sin to obey him in things unlawful and if it be so in things lawful too then is all obedience sinful § 6. Fifthly When they tell us That the Civil Magistrate is indeed to see to the execution of the Laws of Christ but to make none of his own 't is a distinction without a difference for if he may provide for the execution of the Laws of Religion then may he make Laws that they shall be executed this being the most proper and effectual means to promote their execution so that nothing can be more vain than to deny the Civil Magistrate a power of making Laws in Religion and yet to allow him an Authority to see the Laws of Religion executed because that is so apparently implyed in this in that whoever has a power to see that Laws be executed cannot be without a power to command their execution Especially if we consider the particular Nature of the Laws of Christ that they have only determined the substance and Morality of religious Worship and therefore must needs have left the ordering of its circumstances to the power and wisdom of lawful Authority whatever they determine about them is but in order to the execution of the Laws of God in that whatever they enjoyn cannot be put in practice without being clothed with some particular circumstances and reduced to some particular Cases Thus when the Holy Apostle sets us down a general Rule that all things be done in order and decency without determining what the things are that are conducive to it the determination of this Rule when 't is reduced to practice must be entirely left to the Government of the Church that must judge what things are decent and orderly and what Laws it establishes in order to it though they are but further pursuances of the Apostolical Precept yet are they new and distinct Commands by themselves and injoyn something that the Scripture no where commands So that the Divine Laws being general and general Laws not being to be put in Execution but in particular Cases and Instances he that has Authority to look to the Execution of these general Laws must withal be vested with a Power to determine with what particular Instances Cases and Circumstances they shall be put in Practice and Execution And here when they tell us that it cannot stand with the Love and Wisdom of God not to take order himself for all things that immediately concern his own Worship and Kingdom and that if Iesus Christ has not determined all particular Rites and Circumstances of Religion he has discharged his office with less wisdom and fidelity than Moses who ordered every thing appertaining to the Worship of God even as far as the Pins and Nails of the Tabernacle with divers others the like idle and impertinent reasonings One would think that men who argue at this rate had already at least discovered in the Holy Scriptures a complete Form of Religious Worship as to all particular Rites and Ceremonies of an eternal universal and unchangeable obligation and therefore till they can believe this themselves and prove it to others instead of returning solemn Answers to such baffled and intolerable Impertinencies I shall only advise them to consider the unlucky consequents of their way of arguing when instead of producing a particular Form of Publick Worship prescribed by God himself they with their wonted modesty prove he ought to have done it and that unless he has done it he has been defective in his Care Providence over his Church For what can the Issue of this be but that God is chargeable with want of Wisdom or Goodness or with some other Defect even by certain and infallible Experience For if he has not determined every particular Circumstance of Worship then he must stand charged with all the absurdities they object against their being left undetermined and therefore if no such prescribed form can be produced as 't is infinitely certain none ever can then let them consider what follows So unhappy a thing is it when men will needs be disputing against Experience whose Evidence is so powerful and forcible upon the minds of men that Demonstration it self is not strong enough to cope with it How much less the weak and puny Arguments wherewith these men assault it Sect. 7. Sixthly There is no particular Action but what is capable of a strange and unaccountable variety of Circumstances nor any part of outward Worship but may be done after a thousand different Modes and Fashions in that as every action is clothed with natural and emergent Circumstances so is every Circumstance with its Circumstances every one of which may be modified in sundry ways and manners And therefore in this infinite variety of things the Laws of God prescribe only the general Lines of Duty and rarely descend to their particular Determinations but leave them to be determined by Prudence and Discretion by Choice and Custom by Laws and Prescriptions and by all those ways by which Humane Affairs are governed and transacted Thus for example The Divine Law has made Charity a standing and eternal Duty but has left its particular way of expression undetermined and uncommanded and 't is indifferent whether it be done by building of Colledges or Churches or Hospitals by repairing of Bridges or Rivers or High-ways by redeeming of Slaves and Prisoners by hospitality to the Poor or Provision for Orphans or by any other way of Publick or Private Bounty and when a man 's own thoughts have determined his own choice to one or more of these Particulars even that is vested with a strange number of Accidents and Circumstances which must of necessity be left entirely to the conduct of his own Reason and Discretion And the case is the same as in all other Duties of Moral Virtue so in that of religious gratitude or Divine Worship this Duty it self is of a natural and essential necessity but yet may and must be performed with an unconceivable variety of Dresses Customs and ways of Expression that are left utterly free and undetermined in Scripture any of which may be decently used provided they do not make debasing representations of God wherein consists the proper folly of Idolatry and Superstition And all the advantages of Order and Solemnity wherewith Religion may be prudently adorned are not only lawful but decent although they are not warranted by
any Wars are commenced upon just and warrantable grounds And yet how few are they that take upon them to judge their lawfulness All men here think their Princes command a sufficient warrant to serve him and satisfie themselves in this that in case the cause prove to be unjust the fault liesentirely upon him that commands and not at all on him who has nothing to do but obey And if it were otherwise that no Subject were bound to take up Arms till himself had approved the justness of the cause Commonwealths must be bravely secured and their safety must lie at the mercy of every humorsome and pragmatical Fellow And yet to this piece of arrogance do men tempt themselves when they affect to be thought more godly than their Neighbors It is a gallant thing to understand Religion better than their Superiors and to pity their ignorance in the great Mysteries of the Gospel and by seeming to compassionate their weakness to despise their Authority But if Princes will suffer themselves to be controul'd by the pride and insolence of these contentious Zealots they do but tempt them to slight both their persons and their Government and if they will endure to be checked in their Laws Spiritual and Government of the Church by every Systematical Theologue and most not to say the best of our Adversaries are little better they may as well bear to see themselves affronted in their Laws Civil and Government of the State by every Village-Attorney and Solicitor Well then all men that are in a state of Government are bound in all matters doubtful and disputable to submit the dictates of Private Conscience to the determinations of Publick Authority Nor does this oblige any man to act against the dictates of his own Conscience but only by altering the case alters his perswasions i.e. though every man considered absolutely and by himself be bound to follow his own private judgment yet when he is considered as the member of a Society then must be govern'd then he must of necessity be bound to submit his own private thoughts to publick determinations And it is the dictate of every mans Conscience that is not turbulent and seditious that it ought in all things that are not of a great apparent necessity whatever its own private judgment of them is to acquiesce in the determinations of its Governors in order to publick peace and unity For unless this be done there can be nothing but eternal disorders and confusions in the Church in that it is utterly impossible that all men should have the same apprehensions of things and considering the tempers and passions of mankind as impossible that they should not pursue their differences and controversies with too much heat vehemence And therefore unless whatever their own judgments and apprehensions be they are bound in all such cases to acquiesce in the decisions and determinations of the Governors of the Church or Common-wealth in order to its peace and setlement there can be no possible way of avoiding endless squabbles and confusions And unless this be a fundamental Rule dictate of every mans Conscience that as he is bound in all doubtful cases to follow the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the best result of his own private perswasions where he neither has nor is obliged to have any other guide or rule of his actions so he is bound to forego them all provided his plain and necessary duty be secured out of obedience to Authority and in order to the due Government of the Society there never can be any peace or setlement in any Church or Common-wealth in the world And every Conscience that is not thus perswaded is upon that account to be reckoned as seditious and unpeaceable and so to be treated accordingly Sect. 7. He that with an implicite Faith and confidence resigns up his own Reason to any Superior on earth in all things is a Fool and he is as great a Fool to say no worse that will do it in nothing For as all men are immediately subject to God alone in matters of indispensable duty that are not at all concern'd in our present dispute so are they in all other things to condescend to the Decrees and determinations of their lawful Superiors Neither is this to put men upon that supream Folly of renouncing the use and guidance of their own Reasons out of obedience to any mans infallibility For by Reason we mean nothing but the mind of man making use of the wisest and most prudential methods to guid it self in all its actions and therefore it is not confined to any sort of Maxims and Principles in Philosophy but it extends it self to any knowledge that may be gained by Prudence Experience and Observation And hence right Reason when it is imploy'd about the actions of men is nothing else but Prudence and Discretion Now the Reason of any wise and sober man will tell him that it is most Prudent Discreet and Reasonable to forego his own private perswasions in things doubtful and disputable out of obedience to his lawful Superiours because without this the World can never be governed And supposing mens judgments and understandings to be never so much above the Iurisdiction of all Humane Authority and that no man can be bound to submit his Reason to any thing but the Commands of God yet every man ows at least so much civility to the will of his Prince and the peace of his Country as to bring himself to a compliance and submission to the Publick Judgment rather than to disturb the Publick Peace for the gratification of his own Fancy and Opinion Which is no enslaving of his Reason to any mans usurpation over his Faith and Conscience but only a bringing it to a modest compliance in order to the common interests of Humane Society And if it be not a duty of subjection yet it is one of peaceableness and if it be not grounded upon our obligations to the Authority it self yet it is most clearly derived from an higher Obligation that all men are under to advance the welfare of mankind and more particularly of that Society they live in that is antecedent to those of Government which is instituted only in order to the common good And therefore though our duty in such cases could not be deduced from our obligation to any humane Authority yet it clearly arises from that duty of Charity we owe to our Fellow Creatures And though we are not to submit our Vnderstandings to any Humane Power yet we are to the first and Fundamental Laws of Charity which being one of the greatest duties of mankind it is but reasonable to forego all more private and inferior obligations when they stand in competition with it And thus St. Paul notwithstanding he declaimed with so much vehemence against the observation of the Judaical Rites and Ceremonies never scrupled to use them as oft as it was serviceable to the advancement of the Christian Religion